While Pakistan may have had limited success in developing strong bilateral trade ties with neighbouring countries, it has had more success in forming relations with far flung nations. One example is that of Kenya, a country 3,000 miles away for whom we have the dubious honour of being its largest export destination.

The nearly a billion dollar bilateral trade relationship being the two countries is led by this nation’s love of tea. There are few houses in the country where Kenyan exports of black tea have not found shelf space, resulting in Pakistan accounting for over 10 percent of Kenya’s exports. Kenya accounts for nearly 80 percent of Pakistan’s tea imports. In return, Pakistan exports about $200 million worth of rice annually, making the Kenyan market roughly 10 percent of Pakistan’s total rice exports.

While tea imports have been fairly constant, rice exports have faced a more uphill battle. The current woes comprise of at least 600 containers stuck at Kenyan ports where they are being subjected to higher level of scrutiny and verification than the norm. Since the only lab that can conduct the required tests is in Nairobi while the cargo is stuck at Mombasa port, the testing process is taking a long time resulting in heavy demurrages. There have been repeated calls for the foreign office to intervene as costs pile up each day.

Despite the distance, Kenya is an important market for Pakistan because the tariffs levied are uniform across all trading partners. This is in contrast to countries such as China that have offered better access to competing Asean rice exporting countries. Currently Pakistan has 60 percent of the Kenyan market with potential to increase exports by a further 200,000 tons.

Though Kenya has its own plantations of mostly Basmati rice, lack of land suitable for cultivation and inadequate water prevent it from producing anywhere near enough for self-sufficiency. On the other hand rice consumption is rapidly increasing due to change in dietary preferences, higher incomes and urbanisation, indicating potential for higher exports.

The East African Community (EAC) countries have been lobbying for a common external tariff of 75 percent ad-valorem or $345 per ton tariff, whichever is higher, on rice imports from countries not belonging to EAC. Sometimes the pressure to increase tariff makes it way to Pakistani media channels and there is a hue and cry from local rice exporters. However, as yet Kenya has been granted “stay of application” based on its limited production. This waiver is reviewed every year by the EAC secretariat and is likely to continue being extended for the foreseeable future.