Kenya’s flower exports may stall this year, as wet weather curbs production and costs increase because of the weakening shilling, the Kenya Flower Council said.
Exports totaled 54.6 billion shillings ($519 million) in 2014, and the industry will be “doing OK” if that level is matched this year, Jane Ngige, the council’s chief executive officer, said in an interview.
Kenya supplies about 38 percent of the cut flowers sold in Europe, according to the council. Horticulture exports generated $928 million last year, making one of the East African country’s biggest foreign-exchange earners alongside tea and tourism revenue, Kenya National Bureau of Statistics data shows.