By HARRIET MUGO
Kenya will from next month begin exporting meat products to South Africa.
This follows talks between President William Ruto and Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa at State House, Nairobi, on Wednesday.
Ruto announced the lift of the 10-year ban of Kenyan meat products by Africa’s second-largest economy, beginning December.
”We’ve had a 10-year ban on our meat products accessing the South African market. We have committed ourselves and yesterday in the evening we got a brief from the ministers concerned that by December this year, the ban will be lifted so that our products can access the South African market,” said the president.
He cited phytosanitary regulations as the reason South Africa blacklisted Kenyan products.
Phytosanitary regulations are government regulations that prohibit the importation of certain plant or animal species, or their products, to prevent the introduction or spread of pathogens that the species may be carrying.
Ruto noted that the regulations have also affected Kenya’s export of farm produce such as tea and avocadoes to South Africa, but said that the two governments were in the process of harmonizing the requirements
The two presidents directed their respective ministers of trade to come up with a means to identify, monitor, and resolve the Non-Tariff Barriers (NTBs) that limit the trade potential between both countries to strengthen trade and investment.
The bilateral talks between the two president’s saw the signing of three Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) and a cooperation agreement to augment bilateral relations between Nairobi and Pretoria.
