Kenya and Pakistan have agreed to enhance their bilateral trade in the agricultural sector, Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Mithika Linturi has announced.
Linturi was speaking in Islamabad, Pakistan, after holding bilateral trade talks with Pakistan Minister of Food Security and Research, Chaudhary Tariq Bashir Cheema.
Linturi said that his ministry has formulated policies and plans that seek to improve the current inter-trade relations with the country.
The main area of trade focus will be on the tea sector with Kenya also aiming to gain from Pakistan's farming practices like adopting modern farming technology which Linturi says will improve Kenya's food security.
Pakistan imports 40 per cent of their tea from Kenya making it, its largest trade partner in the sector.
Linturi said that Kenya has a lot to learn from Pakistan in terms of Agriculture. The relatively semi-arid country has a population of 220,000 million people and is food secure yet it relies on irrigation farming only.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture, tea exportation ranks as Kenya's leading foreign exchange earner accounting for 26 per cent of the foreign exchange earnings and two per cent of the National Gross Domestic Product.
Mithika also graced the Pakistan Tea Association annual gala event held in Karachi where he pledged to ensure that Kenyan tea exported is with added value to increase earnings for farmers and exporters.
Linturi also announced that his ministry will implement the establishment of Special Economic Zones (SEZ) in Mombasa County which will replace the current Export Promotion Zones (EPZ) in a bid to improve value addition to the Kenyan export tea.
"Kenya is rated among the highest quality producers of tea worldwide with seventy-seven market destinations worldwide, but our export earnings are not higher than other countries like Sri Lanka and China who export their tea with added value," said Linturi.
Linturi is accompanied by the Kenyan Ambassador to Pakistan Nyambura Kamau, Kenya Tea Development Agency holdings (KTDA) Chairman David Ichoho, and KTDA Chief Executive Officer Wilson Muthaura among others.
