Murang'a County, a significant avocado-producing region in Kenya, contributes 40% of the national output, valued at over $3.5 million. Most homes in the area have small orchards, which have become crucial for rural livelihoods. While cities like Madrid and Stockholm offer lucrative markets for avocados, Murang'a farmers, like others in Kenya, face barriers to entry. These include a lack of understanding of market requirements, international sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) standards, food safety protocols, and labour conditions. Addressing these challenges requires training and collective effort. Thousands of kilometres away, cities like Madrid and Stockholm represent some of the most lucrative markets for this green gold. But while demand is strong, access remains limited. The farmers of Murang’a, like many of their peers across Kenya, face persistent barriers to entry. Chief among them is inadequate knowledge of market requirements, including compliance with international sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) standards, food safety protocols, and labour conditions. Bridging this gap demands training, and collective resilience. This was the reason over 60 members of the Lima Linda Cooperative, translated as “Farm and Protect”, assembled for a training session on GLOBALG.A.P. and GRASP protocols in early June 2025. Organised with support from TradeMark Africa (TMA) through the European Union- funded Business Environment and Export Enhancement Programme (BEEEP), the session focused on soil, water, and biodiversity protection, food safety, record keeping, and worker welfare. It marked the fifth group from the cooperative to undergo training since joining the programme in 2024, underscoring the consistency and commitment required for...

Asmin Abdalla shares a moment with Mariam Mbaabu, chair of Busia Women Cross-Border Traders Cooperative. As the sun rises over Busia, the bustling border town between Kenya and Uganda comes to life. Traders haggle over prices, trucks roll through customs, and the scent of fresh fish fills the air. Among them is Natocho Susan Charity, a member of the Busia Women Cross-Border Fish Cooperative. For years, cross-border trade was risky and unpredictable. Women like Susan avoided official border routes to escape high fees and complex regulations, instead using informal paths known as panya routes, which were often dangerous. “Boda boda riders stole from us. We faced harassment, and officials demanded bribes,” Susan recalls. “We lost most of our earnings.” With funding from Global Affairs Canada, TradeMark Africa (TMA), partnered with the Eastern African Sub-Regional Support Initiative for the Advancement of Women (EASSI), to provide training, legal aid, and support for women to formalise their businesses. “Agriculture is an important source of income for women in East Africa, with high percentages of women working in the sector across the region, including 96% in Burundi, 76% in Kenya, 84% in Rwanda, 71% in Tanzania, and 77% in Uganda,” explains Anna Nambooze, TMA Country Director for Uganda and South Sudan. “The Women in Trade project supported these women to increase their incomes and improve their livelihoods through trade.” Natocho Susan Charity once forced to use informal routes to trade, now safely crosses using formal border points. TMA supports the transition of traders to...

May 20, 2024, Athi River, Kenya – The world’s first green industrial garment factory has broken ground in Athi River EPZ, with a $530,000 investment from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and a $1.3 million loan from Trade Catalyst Africa (TCA). This new warehouse spans 5,000 sqm and is poised to be the world’s first sustainable garment factory constructed using upcycled containers. Already under construction, the green textile center will be completed by December 2024. With its innovative construction, and use of solar energy and rainwater harvesting, the new garment and textile center is expected to save an estimated 18 tons of CO2 annually. It will also conserve 1,000 m3 of water annually, highlighting the potential for sustainability in industrial design. In addition to USAID and TCA funding, the new factory is a joint venture with Modular Real Estate EPZ Limited (MODULAR), a subsidiary of Container Technology Limited (CONTECH). "This investment presents a great opportunity to build scalable and sustainable industrial space for garment manufacturing and symbolizes our dedication to environmental stewardship," said Duncan Onyango, CEO of Trade Catalyst Africa. "By pioneering this unique industrial space, we are setting a new standard for the garment industry, positioning Kenya and Africa as leaders in sustainable manufacturing." Duncan added that TCA is dedicated to fostering sustainable development through innovative industrial and infrastructure projects, rooted in partnerships with leading organizations and leveraged on cutting edge technologies to drive Africa’s economic growth. The global textiles market, valued at approximately US$1.5 trillion...

Kenya trade agencies, backed by TradeMark Africa (TMA), with funding from international partners like the UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO) in Kenya, are making headway in refining import and export processes. These enhancements are making trade quicker and more cost effective, benefiting traders across the nation and the region. A recent mission assessing the impact of the partnership established. TMA, FCDO Team at the Inland Container Depot in Nairobi on 30th April, 2024 During a recent visit to the Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS) and the Inland Container Depot (ICDN) in Nairobi, Officials from TMA and FCDO alongside representatives from KEBS and Kenya Ports Authority, assessed the impact of projects at KEBS laboratories and the Inland Container Depot (ICDN) in Nairobi which are designed to assure product quality and cargo management. The mission noted key achievements over the last five years such as the digitalisation of trade systems. The implementation of the Integrated Customs Management System (iCMS), along with initiatives like the East African Community (EAC) Single Customs Territory, and the Regional Electronic Cargo Tracking System (RECTS) have cut cargo dwell times at the ICDN by over 30%. These upgrades have eased congestion at the Port of Mombasa, facilitating a smoother flow of goods through Kenya’s Northern Corridor. In collaboration with TMA, funded by the FCDO, KEBS implemented the Legal and Regulatory Review and Capacity Development project. Through this, it modernised its laboratories, acquired advanced equipment, and trained staff on market surveillance and SMEs on trust but also...

Customs valuation is the process of determining the value of goods for the purpose of assessing the amount of taxes and duties they should be charged Nairobi, 03 May 2024: The Kenya Revenue Authority and the United Kingdom (UK) have partnered to streamline the Customs valuation process to make it more efficient, transparent, consistent, and predictable. This will reduce disputes, ensure faster clearance of goods for businesses, and create a level playing field. This process is also expected to boost Government revenues, resolve issues of trade based money laundering, and contribute to safeguarding consumers from unsafe and counterfeit products. As part of this enhancement, KRA with funding channelled through TradeMark Africa, by the UK trained over 2200 people involved in import of goods. The two month-long activity convened customs staff, clearing agents, and traders from Nairobi, Mombasa, Eldoret, Busia, Malaba, Namanga, and Moyale to improve their understanding of valuation rules and enhance their awareness on recent updates to the system. Commenting on the continued partnership between KRA and the UK, the British High Commissioner to Kenya Neil Wigan said “Kenya is at the heart of East African trade.  We want that trade to operate at maximum efficiency, to benefit businesses and consumers across Kenya and East Africa. The UK and Kenya are working together in partnership to provide high quality infrastructure, which will deliver growth for Kenya and the region. We go far when we go together.” The funding for the project is part of the UK Government’s work to...

The IOTA Foundation has stated that the initial stage of its cooperation with an East African business to facilitate paperless trading in the area has been completed successfully. The Foundation partnered with TradeMark Africa on the initiative, which aimed to modernize the continent’s supply chain’s inefficient and expensive paper-based procedures. This technique was substituted by a more effective digital approach system on the basis of IOTA’s ledger data platform, the Tangle. The Foundation collaborated with the Nairobi, Kenya-headquartered business to develop an interconnectivity technological framework that allows East African companies to “interact in a clear, safe, and immediate manner, both between themselves and with global associates.” TradeMark Africa (TMA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting regional commercial development. According to their calculations, a single transaction in Africa necessitates the completion of 96 paper based documents on average. The situation is far worse for exporters. They misplace papers because they have to distribute them physically, which contributes to inefficiencies, which are usually always pricey. Along with TMA, the IOTA Foundation is working to alter this. The Trade Logistics Information Pipeline (TLIP), which centered on the Kenyan flower business, was their initial effort. It’s among Kenya’s most important industries, and is also one of Africa’s largest. Kenya exports around 180,000 tonnes of flowers each year, or nearly seven million stems each day. Because this sort of product is very perishable, having an effective and robust distribution chain is important. This is something that TLIP has already been giving to farmers and exporters. “In...

International trade, however, has a huge part to play in keeping the UK’s florists stocked with fresh cut flowers. The second top import market to the UK for flowers is Kenya, which supplies just over 8 percent of British-sold flowers, or 10,000 tons, worth not far off £67 million. Cut flowers account for 25% of all Kenyan imports to the UK. The Institute of Export & International Trade has been working with donor organization TradeMark Africa (TMA) to implement a ‘digital trade corridor’ between the UK and Kenya to help simplify trade between the two nations. The initiative, called the ‘UK-Kenya Trade Logistics Information Pipeline’ (TLIP), aims to eliminate documentation and introduce better visibility in the supply chains flowing between the UK and Kenya. This initiative builds upon on the Kenya-UK Economic Partnership Agreement, which was signed in December 2020. TLIP's system uses blockchain technology to link all those in a supply chain together, enabling faster logistics and easier trading. Marco Forgione, director general of the IOE&IT, said: “This Valentine’s Day when you were giving your loved one a beautiful bouquet of flowers, consider the journey they have taken to put that smile on their face. Around nine different organizations are involved with the transportation of flowers from Kenya before they enter your home and all of these actions in the supply chain require documentation to move the goods along on their journey. “The trade corridor we are creating will provide more transparency and enable all actors to view the...

“Armed men broke his windscreen and started hitting him with an iron bar. They stole the goods he was carrying and left him for dead. By the time help came, it was too late. He had died from excessive bleeding,”-Patrick Mutinda, former Truck driver. East Africa’s Regional Electronic Cargo Tracking system (RECTS) has many benefits some of which include safety of cargo, expedited clearance at borders and reduced dumping. To many long-distance truck drivers, it has assured them of safety on the sometimes-treacherous transport corridors. RECTs is a webbased system that provides a harmonised platform for revenue authorities in Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda to monitor transit cargo from loading to offloading thus curbing cargo dumping, diversion among other risks. Over the years, cargo volume along transport corridor has increased and this raised the need to facilitate quick movement of cargo without compromising customs security controls. That is the well-known story. The untold story is that of long-distance truck drivers ferrying high risk and often in demand goods, whose lives have been saved from armed robbers by the rapid response unit attached to RECTs. Drivers like Mutinda. Mutinda is a former long-distance truck driver. He recalls his perpetual discomfort driving along Kiu, a lonely hilly section of the Mombasa-Nairobi highway near Salama, as the area was known for armed gangsters who attacked cargo trucks. His friend lost his life in one such incidence. “My friend… as his truck slowed down, armed men attacked him, injuring him, and taking off with the goods...

Bureaucratic delays related to standards certification almost led Michael Kimeu* to give up on his ambitions to set up a bottled water business in early 2010’s. Kimeu set up a water distillation and bottling plant on the outskirts of Kajiado, a county to the south west of Kenya’s capital Nairobi. However, he knew that he could not embark on his new venture without his product acquiring certification from the Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS). The certification is a mandatory requirement for all locally manufactured products before they are shipped to markets locally or even regionally. It is issued to a firm as confirmation that a product conforms to requirements set by the Bureau. As soon as his equipment was installed and first product samples generated, Kimeu lodged his application for a permit. Almost half a year later, he was yet to receive the permit and attempts to follow up led to frustration. The delay had a negative impact on his business as supermarkets and other retailers could not stock his product without the KEBS mark of quality. It is an offence under the Standards Act Cap 496 of the laws of Kenya to offer a product for sale without a valid standard mark of quality. To keep his business active, Kimeu altered his initial plans and set up a small-scale water-refilling business, awaiting the KEBS license. "The kin d of investment I had made could not be recouped by the new strategy and I found that I was running into...

Mariam Babu, 43, a mother of five and grandmother to two who sells eggs in Kenya and salt in Uganda via the Busia border town, is not the image that springs to mind when you think of a smuggler. Yet when she recalls her time bringing in products from Kenya into Uganda through abandoned bush routes in the dead of the night, around 10 years ago, that is the word she chooses to describe herself. [caption id="attachment_55075" align="alignnone" width="640"] “Don’t get me wrong. We were not bringing in dangerous contraband,” she notes, “it was things like rice, wheat flour, and household goods. Yet the process of going through the proper routes at the Busia border, before the One-Stop Border Post was built was too complicated and too difficult for us small traders. The offices we have today didn’t exist. None of us knew where to go to clear our goods, the officers were rude and corrupt, and there was much paperwork to do - it was all so expensive. We never felt welcome at the border!”[/caption] Today, Mariam is the chairwoman of the Women’s Cross Border Traders Cooperative Society. From her office at the Women’s Trade Desk at the Busia One-Stop Border Post (OSBP), she reflects on her decade-long transformation. The changes at the border over the past several years, she says, have not only changed the border but also changed her life. She notes the establishment of the East African Community (EAC) Common Market, the construction of the OSBP...