A trade spat between Kenya and Tanzania resulted in a sharp decline in the quantity of goods that Kenya exported to its neighbor, data from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) shows.
The latest government figures show that Kenya’s exports to Tanzania reduced by a third in the first five months of 2017.
Analysts warn that the cross-border trade could get even worse as the year progresses, if action is not taken to completely resolve the spat.
The (KNBS) data shows that the value of the exports went down by 33 per cent to Sh8.2 billion between January and May, compared to Sh12.5 billion last year.
Ministers of foreign affairs from the two countries last month agreed to lift the trade restrictions the countries had imposed on each other. Local media outlet Standard however reports that this deal is yet to be honored as Kenyan traders saying that they were yet to gain access to the Tanzanian market. It also reports that Kenyan universities were ordered to shut down their branches in Tanzania.
Among the products that have been banned from the Tanzanian market are milk and milk products as well as cigarettes.
Tanzania is one of the largest export markets for Kenya and is the second largest in Africa after Uganda. According to the Kenya Economic Survey 2017, exports to Tanzania stood at Ksh34 billion last year.
