Egypt's food industry exports to Kenya recorded a remarkable growth of 111% between 2014 and 2020, according to Tameem El-Dawy, Deputy Executive Director at the Egyptian Food Export Council (FEC). In the seven-year period, these food industry exports were worth a total value of about $419m, El-Dawy added. Speaking at a seminar on Wednesday, El-Dawy added that food industry exports to Kenya recorded about $34m in 2014, growing 1% during 2015 to record $35m. The exports grew by 49% in 2016 to reach $51m, with Egypt's food exports to Kenya increasing by 16% in 2017 to record $60m. These then grew by 30% in 2018 to record $77m, then by 15% to record $89m in 2019. Due to the current circumstances caused by the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the sector's exports to Kenya has experienced a decline of 18% to register $73m in 2020, he added. Meanwhile, El-Dawy noted that 15 commodities acquired 96% of the total food industry exports to Kenya in 2020, valued at $70m. "Sugar and glucose accounted for 32% of the exports of food industries to Kenya last year, with a value worth $23m, followed by pasta accounting for 16% with a total value of $12m, and yeasts with a value of $7m and 10% of the total value of the sector's exports to the Kenyan market," he said, "Egypt exported starch worth $6m to Kenya in 2020, prepared animal food worth $4m, oils except olive oil worth $3m, biscuits and grain preparations worth $3m, and chocolate, cocoa and preparations, tomato sauce, tomato concentrates with a value of $2m for each." El-Dawy added that fruit and jam concentrates, aromatic mixtures, various food preparations and juices accounted for a value of $1m each. He said that there are some food products in Kenyan imports that have an alternative in Egyptian exports with a value of $660m in 2019. Kenya's imports of 15 food commodities represent 93% of the commodities that have an alternative in Egyptian food exports items. These are: sugar with a value of $307m; milk and cream worth $98m; food preparations worth $50m; milk and concentrated cream worth $41m; and chocolate with $20m. Kenya's imports of pasta amounted to approximately $20m in 2019. These imports occurred alongside imports of: fruit preparations worth roughly $13m; yeast imports worth roughly $10m; soybean oil worth roughly $10m; starch worth about $10m; sauces and mixed spices worth about $9m; bread, pastries and cakes worth about $7m; fruit juices with $7m; essential oils worth about $7m; sunflower seed oil worth a value of $6m. El-Dawy concluded that Kenya's total imports from food industries from the world in 2019 stood at around $1.4bn. Kenya was the seventh largest importer of all commodities in Africa, with a value of $17.2bn in 2019.
