Publication Date: 3/26/2008

NAIROBI, Tuesday

Kenya horticulture sector, the largest exporter of cut flowers to Europe, earned Sh70.3 billion in 2007 up 63 per cent from the previous year, the Central Bank said on Tuesday.

"Growth in this sub-sector was buoyed by good export prices of the key export commodities, as export values increased faster than increase in volume of exports," the bank said in its monthly economic review for February.

The sector surpassed tourism as the country's leading foreign exchange earner. The tourism sector earned an estimated 65.4 billion shillings in 2007, according to the Kenya Tourist Board.

Post-election violence

Horticulture industry group the Fresh Produce Exporters' Association earlier this year put horticulture's earnings for 2007 at Sh49 billion.

The sector's officials said the industry was only slightly affected by post-election violence at the start of this year, which slowed the tourism industry. A large proportion of the earnings came from flowers, which accounted for Sh43.1 billion or 64 percent of the 2007 earnings.

Horticulture employs two million Kenyans directly, 80 per cent of them small-scale farmers.

Many flower farm workers were displaced when violence erupted in Naivasha, one of the leading producers of cut flowers. However, peace returned after the signing of a peace deal between President Kibaki and ODM leader Raila Odinga.  (Reuters)