Flight ban tests Kenyan vegetable exporters

By Mary Hennock
BBC News Online business reporter

Britain buys 20% of Kenya's crop

The British government's suspension of flights to Kenya could cause problems for the East African country's vegetable growers and exporters, who make up one of its biggest industries.

Many of the fresh vegetables sold in British supermarkets are grown in Kenya and arrive in the baggage holds of ordinary, scheduled flights.

But UK supermarkets say that supplies of traditional summer salads and newly fashionable foods like mange tout and baby corn will be as crisp and prompt as ever.

As long as other European countries do not follow Britain's ban on flights, supermarkets remain confident that it will be business as usual.

Feeding half a million

For Kenya the picture is more mixed.

Freight firms still have plenty of other airlines to choose from, as well as specially commissioned charters.

Kenya ships out about 350 tonnes of vegetables and cut flowers a night, industry sources in Nairobi told BBC News Online.

It's going to be very, very difficult to market the vegetables that we've currently produced

Tom Cholmondeley, Delamere Estates

Horticulture employs about 70,000 Kenyans directly, and another 20,000 in ancillary industries. Add in their dependents and it may support as many as 500,000 people.

It is also Kenya's second biggest earner of foreign exchange after tea, having leapt up from fourth place since 2001.

Tourism - the industry likely to suffer most and a bigger employer - ranks in joint third place with coffee.

No bite

Britain buys about 20% of Kenya's vegetable exports, says Kenya's Fresh Produce Exporters Association (FPEA).

Vegetables are a more important export than coffee

As the bulk of exports go to Continental Europe, sales to Britain are often trucked from Holland, making the flight ban "unhelpful" but "manageable", an FPEA spokesman said.

Sainsbury, Tesco, Asda have all insisted their supplies would not be disrupted.

"The flights that we're using are obviously not covered by the ban," said a Tesco spokesman, while Asda relies on Dutch airline KLM.

None could say what proportion of their stock comes from Kenya, though all said it was a small amount.

And the flight ban comes at the start of the European summer, giving UK supermarkets plenty of flexibility to buy their greens elsewhere.

"Because of the weather at the moment, volumes are not as high as at other times of the year," says Richard Fox, managing director of Nairobi-based Homegrown.

Tense times

Kenyan growers and shippers assessments of the likely economic damage vary widely.

European supplies are plentiful in summer

"Those who are shipping on British Airways will have to make alternative arrangements. As long as there's space it's a fairly straightforward operation," said Mr Fox.

The freight forwarders "will be really, really tearing their hair out now to find alternative markets," said Tom Cholmondeley, finance and strategy director at Delamere Estates.

He predicts "a very hard time for those who rely on the UK market".

"It means that it's going to be very, very difficult to market the vegetables that we've currently produced, it means we'll have to look for a Continental market," said Mr Cholmondeley.

If more countries instruct their airlines to suspend flights to Kenya, the economy could face serious losses in horticulture as well as tourism.

Horticulture is a capital intensive industry. In the last decade, its success has attracted hefty bank loans to farmers and to processing plants.

It takes about $1m of investment per acre to grow vegetables under glass, while outdoor start-up costs are about $10,000 per acre, says Mr Cholmondeley.

He sees "a very messy couple of months" for the industry and potentially for Kenya's banks.