Focusing on adding a new product basket to trade with Kenya, Sri Lanka secured the first ever export deal of coco peat from Sri Lanka to Kenya.
The first consignment of coco peat destined to Kenya was symbolically flagged off by Minister Youth & Sports, Minister of Development Co-ordination and Monitoring and State Minister of Digital Technology and Enterprise Development Namal Rajapaksa at the Port of Colombo yesterday. This event prognosticates Kenya as a new trade destination for Sri Lanka.
The efforts of Sri Lanka and Kenya to increase the economic activities between the two countries had received further momentum with this initiative with the visit of Minister Namal Rajapaksa to Kenya in October, 2021.
“Although the bilateral relations have reached over 50 years of friendship and cooperation, the trade relations have not realised its true potential,’’ the Minister said.
Sri Lanka’s export value in 2019 was US$ 24 million limiting to a few products such as knitted or crocheted fabrics, cartons, boxes, packaging materials, staple fibres etc. Minister Rajapaksa observed that there was a huge potential for trade expansion between Sri Lanka and Kenya and launched this with High Commissioner of Sri Lanka to Kenya Velupillai Kananathan who contributed to developing an action plan to turn a new leaf in the trade relations between the two countries.
Coco peat is used by the well-developed agricultural sector in Kenya for soil preparations. The Sri Lankan Coco peat manufacturers used a unique preparation method as requested by the Kenyan users which convinced them that the Sri Lankan product is of high quality compared to what they are using currently. Kenya’s total annual import capacity of Coco peat stands at 10,000MT, which guarantees a sustainable export trend of this product from Sri Lanka to Kenya.
Add new comment