The official expiry of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) programme. has created a new urgency for the country to reimagine its export base.
The government is also accelerating diversification and value addition to cushion exporters from shifting global trade conditions.
Kenya Export Promotion and Branding Agency (KEPROBA) Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Floice Mukabana said the lapse of AGOA which one of the most important frameworks supporting Kenya’s textile and apparel exports to the US She said Kenya has to identify new products and pursue markets beyond traditional partners.
Mukabana said Kenya now falls under a 10 per cent incremental tariff, which still gives it a competitive edge compared to several rivals, but warned that depending on favourable exemptions was not viable for the long term.
“AGOA has expired, and while Kenya remains competitive under the new tariff structure, we must not rely on preferential access alone.
Our goal is to diversify products, diversify markets and increase value addition so that shocks in one market do not destabilise the entire sector,” she said.
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The expiry of the AGOA programme, Mukabana said, comes at a time when global standards, logistics costs and buyer acquisition remain major headaches for Kenyan SMEs trying to enter export markets.
To respond, KEPROBA, she said, was rolling out a product development cycle to train exporters on standards, branding, packaging and trade finance, alongside collaborations with the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA), Kenya Ports Authority (KPA), Exports Processing Zones Authority (EPZA), DHL and the Kenya National Chamber of Commerce to streamline the export ecosystem.
KEPROBA, she said, was targeting a 10 per cent annual growth in exports by 2028, guided by a strategy that shifts Kenya away from bulk commodity exports to higher-value finished products.
To achieve this, she said Kenya was seeking to expand its footprint within the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) through the guided trade initiative, which allows select products to enter African markets under preferential terms.
The agency, she added, was pushing for roasted and branded Kenyan coffee, packaged tea, processed horticultural goods, leather and livestock products, and new-generation foods such as live insects and insect-based supplements.
Speaking in Kisumu during a roundtable with exporters, Mukabana said Kenya’s export sector has shown exceptional resilience, with exports growing steadily even during the COVID-19 period, rising to Sh1.1 trillion last year.
She attributed this to strong performance in tea, coffee, textiles, flowers, fruits and vegetables but said Kenya must now widen its export portfolio to reduce overdependence on these commodities.
“We want Kenyan products that have never accessed certain markets to finally break in.
At the same time, we want markets that only know us for tea or coffee to begin receiving Kenyan leather, textiles, agro-processed goods and other new products,” she said.
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Mukabana said that Kisumu was being positioned as a major growth frontier owing to its expanding blue economy, fisheries, agro-processing, rice farming and strategic access to Uganda and Tanzania.
Mukabana also said that new export categories emerging from the region including fish leather and live insects, are gaining recognition globally as alternative proteins.
The CEO said Keproba will compile insights gathered from regional forums into a national white paper expected to guide future policies ahead of the Exporters Convention in Nairobi in June 2026.
“We must use this moment to build an export sector that is resilient, innovative and less dependent on single markets or policy exemptions,” Mukabana said. “This is our opportunity to reset,” she affirmed.
By Fredrick Odiero
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