Jane Ngige, the council’s chief executive officer:
"Kenya: "El Nino is likely going to affect production"
Shipments 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 Sept. 11. Kenya supplies about 38 percent of the cut flowers sold in Europe, according to the council. Horticulture exports generated $928 million last year, one of the East African country’s biggest foreign-exchange earners alongside tea and tourism revenue, Kenya National Bureau of Statistics data shows.
“The first half of 2015 has been a difficult year,” Ngige said. “The weather has been strange. We are yet to see what that has done to the volumes.”
While most of Kenya’s flowers are grown in greenhouses or under nets that protect the crop from heavy rains, wetter weather can make the flowers more susceptible to diseases, Ngige said. The industry is bracing for the onset of the El Nino weather phenomenon, which the Kenya Meteorological Department says will probably bring “above-average” rainfall to the country in the fourth quarter.
“El Nino is likely going to affect production” by damaging infrastructure or leading to diseases associated with increased moisture, Ngige said.
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