FEB-MARCH 2013 ISSUE Final.ai - Hortinews.co.ke

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Workers at the Horticultural Crops Development Authority’s packhouse prepare french beans for the export market.
Pesticides: Europe holds its nose
By DR STEPHEN MBITHI
In February, a high-powered
delegation from the agricultural
sector visited Fruit Logistica in
Berlin and Brussels to explain
the case for Kenya beans/peas in
pods in light of the ongoing 10
per cent checks in the EU market
that started on January 1, 2013.
The team was made up of the
Agriculture Secretary, Wilson
Songa, and managing directors
of the Horticultural Crops
Development Authority, the
Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate
Service and the Pest Control
Products Board. Others were the
Assistant Director of the Kenya
Agricultural Research Institute,
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the CEO of the Fresh Produce and
Exporters Association of Kenya,
and high level representation
from the ministries of Trade and
Public Health.
The controls imposed by the
EU have affected the Kenyan
bean industry significantly,
resulting in a 25 per cent dip
in beans sales in January 2013
compared to January 2012.
This is largely due to more
careful purchase of produce
with exporters sticking mainly
to their contracted groups
and minimising off-contract
purchases from brokers.
In January 2013, about
4,200mt of beans and peas
in pods were exported to
HORTICULTURAL NEWS I FEB / MAR 2013
the EU, comprising 3,200
consignments. Out of these,
about 250 laboratory tests were
done, and four rapid alerts were
received. The industry feels that
this figure must be brought
down to near zero.
It is important, however, to
put it into context: over 99.9
per cent of the samples were
negative, meaning that the vast
majority of Kenyan beans are
compliant to the new stringent
EU rules on pesticides.
Berlin — Fruit Logistica
Summary: We had a scheduled
Kenya meeting in the afternoon
of 7th Feb 2013 during which
we met with buyers who have
been customers of Kenya beans
for years. In the meeting were
also exporters from Kenya,
service providers, development
partners such as COLEACP and
also GlobalGAP.
The central emphasis here
was that Kenyan beans have
NOT been banned from the EU,
exports are still going on strong
(4,000mt in January 2013),
and the markets can continue
counting on Kenya to deliver,
on time, high quality compliant
produce.
We frankly acknowledged
that there have been some
interceptions, and that the
smallholder production system
that delivers about 70 per
cent of Kenyan beans needs
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