China gives market access to Kenyan agricultural produce: President Ruto

China has agreed to give market access to Kenya’s agricultural products, President William Ruto said on Tuesday after a meeting with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping.

Ruto, who is attending the ninth Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) Summit in Beijing, said the agreement was reached during a meeting with Jinping ahead of the summit.

“Held talks with President Xi Jinping at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, ahead of the Forum on China Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) Summit. During the meeting, President Xi agreed to give Kenya's agricultural produce access to the Chinese market,” Ruto said in a post on X.

The presidency had not given further details about the agricultural produce in discussion or the terms of the pact at press time.

Kenya exported $206.63 million (Ksh.26.69 billion at current exchange rates) worth of goods to China in 2023, according to statistics from the United Nations COMTRADE database on international trade.

A large chunk of this was ores slag and ash ($110. 9 million); followed by fruits ($25.7 million); fish ($18 million); then coffee, tea, mate and spices ($9.5 million).

President Ruto’s announcement came amid a drop in Kenya’s avocado exports to the Asian giant’s market so far this year as Kenyan exporters focus on the European and North American markets.

The volume of China’s avocado imports from Kenya dipped by 80 per cent from 3,674,463 to 742,934 kilograms from January to July, according to Chinese customs data.

This reduced Kenya’s export earnings from $6,830,140 (Ksh.882 million at current rates) to $1,232,149 (Ksh.159 million at current rates) during a similar period last year.

Kenya only started exporting avocados to China in August 2022. Until then, there was a requirement that Nairobi only export frozen fruits – not fresh ones – to Beijing, which was eventually lifted.

On Tuesday, Ruto said the expansion of the Mombasa-Naivasha Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) line was also mooted during his meeting with Jinping.

“We also agreed to discuss regional infrastructure projects such as the expansion of SGR, and the Rironi-Mau Summit-Malaba dual carriageway,” the President wrote on X.

The $3.6 billion SGR is among the infrastructure projects China has financed in Kenya, as well as the Nairobi Expressway in the capital.

In May this year, the Kenyan government announced that it seeks over $5.3 billion (about Ksh.720 billion at the time) to connect the SGR line from Naivasha to the Kenya-Uganda border town of Malaba.

Ruto's predecessor, Uhuru Kenyatta, in 2019 failed to secure $3.68 billion to fund the railroad’s extension to Malaba.

China at the time said Uganda’s involvement was key to connecting South Sudan and Rwanda to Kenya’s Indian Ocean port city of Mombasa and that without it, the SGR’s viability would not be feasible.

Kenyatta instead secured $400 million to upgrade Kenya’s colonial-era metre-gauge-railway to Malaba.

The FOCAC Summit brings together African Heads of State, Chinese leaders and the African Union Commission (AUC) to discuss and strengthen China-African relations.