The country’s floriculture sector has recorded improved growth in the last one year due to a rise in flower demand during Valentine according to the Kenya Flower Council (KFC).
Though the official data has not been released, the council is projecting that flower volume exported to the EU market and earnings will rise by 20 percent this financial year.
According to the council CEO Clement Tulezi, there was major improvement in flower demand and production in the current financial year.
He noted that as per data from growers, this years’ Valentine was the best in the last five years due to the volume of flowers exported.
“Though we have not officially released our data for the 2017-2018 period, we project a growth of twenty percent in terms of volume and earnings from the sector,” he said.
Tulezi at the same time identified poor infrastructure and double taxation by national and county governments as the major challenges flower farmers were undergoing.
He called on the two arms of government to harmonize the taxations and challenged the national government to give farmers tax incentives.
“We have seen the ministry of tourism get tax incentives but the floriculture sector which is second in terms of foreign exchange earner has been forgotten,” he said.
The CEO at the same announced that they had embarked on flower promotions campaign with Kenya Airways ahead of the direct flights to the US with a view of accessing the new market.
-Antony Gitonga