May 19, 2017, Nairobi. Thanks to the love of kenya french beans across the world and especially in the European market, the legume is increasingly enjoying a significant rise in exports. One of the remarkable success stories in recent times is the allowance by the United States in 2016 to accept imports of French beans from Kenya during the dead of winter when the crop is lowly available from the country’s local producers.
Following this directive by the US government, it has now become possible for farmers mainly from the Mount Kenya region including Mwea, Kirinyaga, and Matuu, as well as the coastal area of Taveta to gain leverage on the lucrative North American market. This news reveals the goodwill of local family growers who have been cautious in the use of pesticides and other agents of growth that hampered the North American and European markets in 2011 and 2012 when some beans varieties got stuck in European supermarkets for not being straight enough.
The Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Service (KEPHIS) oversees the export of French beans by housing the ready shipments in special warehouses before they go on sale.
In the traditional European destinations for Kenya French beans, supplies improved from 2015, lulled for a while in 2016, only to start resuscitating slowly late the same year. After local farmers learned how to grow and maintain French beans that meet market needs, they now export fresh French beans that have all the qualities that the European Union expects of its imports.
From the year 2015 onwards, the scale of French beans together with some peas from the third world exporting countries to Europe experienced a modest rise to hit 225000. The idea of shipping during the off-peak times, around November to March, an idea that has picked up impressively in 2017, makes for promising returns for farmers.
Kenyan exporters of Kenya french beans usually follow stringent international packaging standards. For instance, they adhere to the 4 to 5 kilogram shipping cartons. Nevertheless, this is not the only basic packaging size as the market now allows as low as 2kg and as high as 5kg carton weights complementary to the total tonnage that importers require.
An indicator that the popular beans locally known as michiri are improving is that they no longer cost as lowly as they used to during their discovery in a tender agricultural Kenya of the 1970s when the crop was just hitting the local psyche as an export produce.
Source: http://www.selinawamucii.com/
