Two trucks were on Monday impounded at Embakasi in Nairobi on suspicion that they were being used to smuggle Macadamia nuts in breach of an export ban imposed on the commodity two years ago.

The trucks were each loaded with a twenty-foot container were intercepted by police as they left a godown located behind the Inland Container Depot in Nairobi.

The cargo was suspected to be destined for China but the contents could not be verified after the police declined to open the containers in the presence of the media.

A Chinese national believed to be behind the consignment escaped arrest after seeking refugee at the Chinese Embassy in Nairobi.

The police were acting on a tip off from local nut processors, who claimed another consignment was lying in the storehouse.

The government in June 2009 banned exports of unprocessed nuts to enhance the export potential of Kenyan nut processors and promote value addition.

Recently, legislators from the Mt Kenya region which is a key supplier of nuts called on a total ban of raw macadamia nuts to China, which offers the largest market for the nuts.

There have been several seizures of raw macadamia nuts headed for the port of Mombasa for export.

Data from the Nut Processors Association of Kenya, the industry lobby, shows that prior to the ban in 2009, exports of raw macadamia to China was 3,752 tonnes constituting 35 per cent of the 10,850 total exports of unprocessed nuts for 2008.

The AGOA trade preferences assist Kenya processors to access the American market.

The Horticultural Crops Development Authority says that macadamia is currently the most popular nut in the world thus the high appetite for the commodity resulting to smuggling.

Local consumption is estimated at about 40 tonnes of processed kernels per year as most of the processed macadamia leave the country for overseas markets.

The industry lobby says the farm gate price of the nuts is on average Sh50 per kilogramme. This puts the total worth of the macadamia nuts to Sh5 billion.

Macadamia exports to the US is likely to go up as shipments to markets such as China, Hong Kong and India decline as they are highly dependent on raw nuts.

Statistics from the Horticultural Crops Development Authority show that Kenya exported 11,827 tonnes of nuts worth Sh2 billion in the year 2010.

Leaders have urged the government to formulate laws and regulations to control foreign investors in macadamia trade in order to protect local industries from collapsing.

However, farmers have decried the poor prices offered by local processors saying they were exploiting them yet nut prices in the international markets were significantly higher.

Latest AGOA Trade Data currently available on AGOA.info


Click here to view a sector profile of Kenya's bilateral trade with the United States, disaggregated by total exports and imports, AGOA exports and GSP exports.

Other regularly updated trade statistics on AGOA.info include: (click each link to view)