Catherine Riungu, Special Correspondent
20 February 2007
Nairobi — A plan by British supermarkets to reduce purchase of imported flowers could see Kenya's flower sales sink by 90 per cent, the Kenya Flower Council has said.
"The UK is the largest single market for Kenya's flowers and one of the world's biggest importers of flowers. Almost a third of its flower imports come from Kenya," said KFC chairman Erastus Mureithi.
Since the UK retailers led by Tesco announced last month that they would reduce the amount of produce exported from Africa due to the effect of long-distance freighting on the environment, talks on the future of the horticulture industry and the devastating effect the move will have on developing countries' economies have taken centrestage.
And as the debate continues, some international institutions have condemned the retailers and urged consumers not to boycott flowers from Africa.
The UK's International Development Secretary Hilary Benn told an International Sustainable Food Conference in London last week that recent research showed that flowers flown from Africa used less energy than those produced in Europe because they are not grown in heated greenhouses.
"A recent study shows that the emissions produced by growing flowers in Kenya and flying them to the UK can be less than a fifth of those grown in heated and lighted greenhouses in Holland because Kenya is warm and sunny, and heating greenhouses in Holland uses enormous amounts of energy," Mr Benn said in a statement.
The Sustainable Food Laboratory is a community of business and social leaders from at least three continents who explore the change to the ways we grow, harvest, buy, and distribute food.
A recent study from the International Institute for Environment and Development conducted at the Naivasha-based Oserian Flowers shows that, although air transport does have an environmental impact, air-freight from Africa account for less than one per cent of the UK's greenhouse gas emissions.
The study is corroborated by researchers from the Natural Resources Department at Cranfield University (UK), whose study, commissioned by World Flowers, reported that carbon emissions for imported Kenyan roses, including air freight, were almost six times lower than for roses imported from the Netherlands.
"In Kenya, carbon emissions are 200 kg a head; in the UK, it is almost 50 times that," added Mr Benn.
He also emphasised that while climate is important to the future of developed and developing countries, if the UK boycotted goods from Africa, the poor would be denied the chance to grow, diminishing their chances to educate their children and stay healthy.
It is estimated that British shoppers spend over $1.9 million a day on imported fruit and vegetables from Africa and the livelihoods of more than a million farmers and their families depend on this trade. Today, 91 per cent of the fruit and 38 per cent of the vegetables that British consumers eat are imported.
"We should remember that people living in the vast majority of African countries are responsible for a tiny amount of carbon emissions. We in the West can have more impact on our huge carbon footprint by turning off our TVs at night and using energy saving lightbulbs," Mr Benn said.
The Kenyan High Commissioner to the UK, Joseph Muchemi, said, "The response of European retailers to consumer concerns about 'food miles' could undermine Kenya's social and economic development."
He added that it is not sustainable to stigmatise certain goods on the basis that they have been freighted by air. 'Food miles,' or the distance food has travelled, is not a reliable indicator of the environmental impact of food transport," Mr Muchemi told The EastAfrican from London.
He added, "European nations must reduce their emissions first before penalising African producers. A boycott of Kenyan roses or green beans would be disastrous for many Kenyan farmers, especially smallholders, and would do little to mitigate climate change.
Mr Muchemi further said: "We must ensure that the food labelling indicators that European retailers are proposing to introduce don't unfairly prejudice consumers against perishable goods from poor and carbon-light countries. We can't have a situation in which poor farmers in Africa pay the price for European carbon emissions. The Kenyan horticultural industry supplies 31 per cent of the cut flower market in Europe, employs 500,000 Kenyans directly and another one million indirectly through auxiliary services."
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