At the beginning of the year, Kenya’s share of this market stood at 32 percent. Latest statistics, according to a local daily, now place this at 38 percent following increased demand.

The demand boost has presumably been largely caused by a decision by UK’s Tesco supermarket chain – the largest in the country – to reveal research findings that there was no direct correlation between distance covered by horticultural products in air transportation (referred to as food miles) and contamination of the environment through harmful carbon emissions.

A few months ago, there had been suggestions by environmental activists in the UK that horticultural commodities that had been transported by air for longer distances bore more harm to the environment than those which had travelled less distances. Accordingly, there had been proposals that goods transported by air be marked with airplane logos to indicate to consumers of the potential dangers these commodities supposedly carried to the ozone layer.

Tesco and Marks & Spencer, which are UK’s biggest buyers of Kenyan horticultural commodities, had introduced such labels. This had threatened demand for horticultural commodities from Kenya, causing uproar.

Kenya later introduced a symbol on its commodities grown under the sun to signify their freshness and harmlessness to the environment.

Research now has confirmed that fears expressed by environmentalists with regard to food miles and carbon emissions had been baseless. It has now been established that there is no scientific connection between distance covered by air-freighted horticultural products and CFC emissions.

In fact, commodities grown in greenhouses in parts of Europe were found to emit more carbon. This revelation, together with the finding that transporting horticultural produce from most of Africa by air emitted just a fraction of UK’s carbon release, has restored and boosted consumer confidence in produce from the region, and Kenya, a major producer and exporter of horticultural goods, is now feeling that growth in demand.

Keywords:  kenya agriculture business