The Republic of Kenya (referred to as Kenya) is located in the eastern part of Africa. The equator runs through its central region, and the East African Rift Valley runs from north to south. It borders Somalia to the east, Tanzania to the south, Uganda to the west, and Ethiopia and South Sudan to the north. The country’s total area is 583,000 square kilometers, with agricultural land accounting for approximately 18%. Agriculture is one of the three major economic pillars of Kenya. In 2023, agriculture accounted for 21.8% of the country’s GDP.
1.1 Grain Crop Cultivation Situation
Corn is the most important staple crop in Kenya, consistently accounting for the largest planting area. The corn planting area in Kenya usually remains above 2 million hectares, making it a core crop for ensuring national food security. According to the prediction of the United States Foreign Agricultural Service, with the weather conditions and rainfall returning to normal, Kenya’s corn production in the 2025/26 fiscal year will increase to 4.4 million tons, but the planting area will be 2.3 million hectares. Kenya’s corn cultivation is mainly concentrated in the western and northern parts of the East African Rift Valley region, and extends to the highland areas in the west and central regions. In recent years, in the major commercial corn-growing areas in the northern part of the East African Rift Valley, many farmers have shifted to growing alternative crops such as avocados and sugar cane.
Wheat, as another important food crop, holds a special position in Kenya’s agricultural production. From 2020 to 2023, the wheat planting area in Kenya remained above 100,000 hectares, but the area has been continuously decreasing. Currently, wheat cultivation is mainly concentrated in Narok near the border with Tanzania and the northern part of Mount Kenya. The reduction in wheat planting area may be due to market prices and drought, among other factors. Farmers have withdrawn from wheat cultivation and instead planted other crops such as barley and rapeseed. Kenya’s wheat production has historically been very low. This may be attributed to farmers’ extensive seed reclamation and the periodic outbreak of wheat rust. Additionally, farmers also attribute low yields to declining soil fertility, which is caused by unpredictable and very short land leases that prevent long-term investment in soil health. The majority of land leases in Kenya’s wheat-growing areas are renewed annually.
1.2 Economic Crop Cultivation Situation
Coffee, as a traditional export crop of Kenya, has a total planting area of approximately 110,000 hectares across 33 coffee-growing regions. Small-scale farmers contribute about 70% of the total output and are also an important pillar of the rural economy. Kenya has exported 123,000 tons of clean coffee to the European Union over the past five years, worth 90 billion Kenyan shillings, mainly to markets such as Belgium, Germany, Sweden, and Finland. As of July 2025, Kenya has completed the mapping of 32,688 hectares (about 30% of the total) of coffee plantations to comply with the new EU regulations on anti-forest deforestation.
Tea is Kenya’s largest agricultural export item. The tea planting area in Kenya has remained at around 200,000 hectares for many years, with an annual output of over 2.4 million tons, making Kenya the world’s largest exporter of black tea.
The avocado industry has developed rapidly in recent years and has become a new growth point in horticultural exports. According to FAO data, the avocado planting area in Kenya is expanding continuously. It is expected that the avocado planting area will increase by 6% to 34,000 hectares by 2025.
2. Import and Export Situation of Pesticides
In 2023, Kenya mainly imported pesticides from China, India, Belgium, France and Germany, etc. During the period from 2022 to 2023, the regions with the fastest growth in Kenya’s pesticide imports were China, Belgium and Thailand. In 2023, the main destinations for Kenya’s pesticide exports were Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania, etc.
From 2020 to 2022, the quantity of pesticide imports in Kenya decreased year by year. In 2023, there was a significant increase. This was mainly due to the global supply chain disruption caused by the outbreak of the pandemic in 2020, which was affected by slow logistics and port closures. The quantity of pesticide imports in Kenya decreased significantly as a result. With the easing of the pandemic, the production of crops (such as tea, coffee, and flowers) in Kenya recovered, and the export demand increased, which drove the increase in pesticide imports. In recent years, the sources of pesticide imports in Kenya have been shifting from traditional European companies to Asian manufacturers (especially China and India), whose pesticide production companies can produce generic pesticides at lower costs. Driven by exports in agriculture, the “high-end market” of pesticide consumption in Kenya has undergone a structural transformation towards more efficient and environmentally friendly pesticides, and the cost per unit area of pesticide application has decreased. Due to domestic economic pressure, currency depreciation, and the ban on highly toxic pesticides, ordinary farmers in Kenya have reduced the use of expensive imported pesticides or turned to cheaper alternatives (including biological pesticides, local products, etc.). These reasons have led to an increase in the quantity of pesticide imports in Kenya in 2023, but the overall import value has decreased.
Post time: Jan-08-2026