According to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS), the continent accounted for 38.6 percent of total export earnings in the first three months of 2017 and was the leading destination of total exports during the period.
During the period under review, exports to the East African Community (EAC), in which Kenya is a member, dropped by 6.8 percent in spite of an eight percent rise in exports to Uganda.
The statistics body said that total exports to the European Union dropped marginally from 356 million dollars in the first quarter of 2016 to 347 million dollars in the same period in 2017, largely on account of reduced export earnings from Netherlands and Britain, which jointly amounted to 224 million dollars in the quarter under review.
The bureau noted that Pakistan was the leading destination of total exports within Asia with export earnings rising by more than twice from 74 million dollars in the first three months of 2016 to 156 million dollars in a similar quarter of 2017.
According to KNBS, Asia was the leading source of imports in the first quarter of 2017, accounting for 69.4 percent of total imports during the review period with the bulk of imports being from the Far East.
Expenditure on imports from the Far East rose by 26.1 percent to 2.2 billion dollars in the first quarter of 2017 mainly on account of imports from China which nearly doubled in the period under review from 653 million dollars in 2016 to 1.17 billion dollars in 2017. Enditem
