Ma Rentao, president of Foton International Group, said the automobile firm is keen to grow its brand across the east African region.
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Kenya needs to reinvent industrial production to expand exports to China

Nairobi (Xinhua) -- Kenya should improve quality of manufactured goods to enhance their competitiveness in the Chinese market, experts said on Friday evening.

Bitange Ndemo, professor of economics at University of Nairobi, said conducting a research on possible deficiencies in the Chinese market would be the beginning of enhancing competitiveness of Kenyan products in the world’s largest economy.

"We cannot say we want to increase our exports to China without precisely knowing what they want," Ndemo said.

Taking into account its population, Ndemo noted an existing gap for food supply which Kenyan producers can bridge if they produce en masse.

"Considering their population they need a lot of food to consume.

"We need to know how much they import, where they import it from and what capacities do those countries have," he added.

Ndemo proposed that in order for Kenya to have a competitive leverage in China, the government should implement a land subdivision hindering policy to encourage large scale farming to ensure a consistent adequate supply of the produce exported.

"We need to have a huge production to compete against other countries," said Ndemo.

He also appealed for development of an initiative that would give preferential access to African goods to influence the growth of Africa’s exports.

Phyllis Wakiaga, chief executive officer of Kenya Association of Manufacturers, said importation of mechanized solutions into farming as well as knowledge transfer will play a huge role in increasing productivity per acre of which the firm outputs could be agro-processed locally or exported to China.

Kenya is eager to export to China products including flowers and vegetables, analysts said.