Kenya is known for the production of quality flowers and is among the top five globally producers and exporters of fresh cut flowers, especially roses at 70 percent.
In Africa, Kenya leads in both production and exports, with the main destination being Europe, mainly the Netherlands which takes up 47 percent of the flower exports while the UK and Germany takes 15 and 7 percent respectively and Middle East and Kazakhstan are among other emerging markets.
Speaking Wednesday during a media briefing on the upcoming International Floriculture Trade Expo (IFTEX) 2025, scheduled for the first week of June, Director of Horticultural Crops Directorate (HCD), Christine Chesaro, said that in 2024, the export earnings in total for horticulture were Sh136 billion and out of this, 53 per cent was from flowers.
Chesaro added that 17 per cent were from vegetables and 30 per cent were from fruits, and this shows that flowers were still the leading export value of all horticultural exports, thus playing a critical role in the economy of this country.
