Export Market Guide - Kenya

All regulatory information for exporting wine to Kenya including the regulatory environment, duties and taxes, and permitted additives.

Unless an exemption has been granted by Wine Australia, grape products exported from Australia must comply with the Food Standards Code. Accordingly, the labelling and wine standards information in Wine Australia’s Export Market Guides should be read in conjunction with Wine Australia’s Licensing and Compliance Guide which contains the requirements of the Food Standards Code and applicable exemptions.

Kenya has grown to become one of the biggest and most diversified economies in Sub-Saharan Africa. It is one of the founding members of the East African Community (EAC), a regional intergovernmental organisation of the Republics of Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, South Sudan and the United Republic of Tanzania. The EAC’s headquarters are in Arusha, Tanzania.

The EAC was established in 2000. It became a Customs Union in 2005. The second integration milestone was reached in 2010 with the implementation of the Common Market with free movement of goods, people, labour, services and capital as well as rights of establishment and residence. The next stage of integration is the Monetary Union which was signed in 2013 and lays the groundwork for a monetary union within 10 years and allows the EAC Partner States to progressively converge their currencies into a single currency. The fourth stage of integration is political federation through the formation of a super-state under a single political authority/government.

The EAC has a combined population of about 150 million people and a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of US$ 146 billion. EAC’s official language is English.

In 2006 the EAC enacted the East African Community Standardization, Quality Assurance, Metrology, and Testing Act (EAC SQMT Act 2006). The purpose of the act is to make provision for ensuring standardisation, quality assurance, metrology and testing of products produced or traded in the Community in order to facilitate industrial development and trade. There are currently 80 technical committees. More than 1,200 standards have been harmonised to date, covering most sectors apart from pharmaceuticals. Conformity assessment procedures have been harmonized with recognition of partner state quality marks.

Kenya has a small wine industry despite the challenges of its equatorial climate with wine being produced in Naivasha, Yatta Plateau and along the Great Rift Valley escarpments. Wine is sold in most supermarkets and specialty wine stores as well as in restaurants and hotels.