Introduction
Kenya, through the Export Promotion Council, aims at revamping the arts and crafts industry to become the leading exporter of value added high quality exports. The development and promotion of new brands will increase the country’s export capacity to traditional and emerging markets, thus creating employment and wealth amongst producer groups. The vision of this plan is to see producers of commercial crafts in Kenya competitively penetrate new markets in a consistent way, placing new designs of high value brands onto the retail outlet shelves in the target market.
More and more functional items that have a decorative element in them tend to do better than purely decorative items. The producers are being encouraged to do more range products that have functionality elements.
Hand Made Kenya Sisal Basket (Kiondo)
Composition of Exportable products
The arts and crafts industry comprises of a variety of product sectors, which are categorized into classifications based on the raw materials used in production. Some of these classifications are :
- Basket-/Wicker-/Vegetable fibre works
- Leather
- Pottery
- Textiles (batiks)
- Soapstone
- Wood
- Various Animal/Mineral/Vegetable Materials
- Extra Categories (ceramics, glassware, beadwork), among many others
Human and Animal Carvings and Assorted Wood Products
Leading Export Destinations/Markets
The export markets for the Kenyan arts and crafts include Netherlands, Germany, Canada, U.S.A, and France.
Export Statistics and trends
- Statistical data on the value and volume of exports on a product-by-product basis is not available. This is mainly because the codification system has not been implemented by Kenya’s Central Bureau of Statistics or the Customs Department of the Kenya Revenue Authority.
- Current statistics (The Economic Survey) indicate that export earnings from commercial crafts were valued at Kshs. 384 million in 1999, Kshs. 388 million in 2000 and Kshs. 449 million in 2001. As you can note, the commercial value of our crafts exports is increasing and this trend is commendable and encouraging.
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