A high-potential region
East Africa is one of the most dynamic agricultural regions on the continent, driven by rapid population growth, urbanization, and increasing pressure on food systems.
The region combines diverse agro-ecological conditions with production systems largely dominated by smallholders, while progressively integrating into regional and international markets.
Within this landscape, Kenya stands out as a key regional hub, with relatively advanced value chains and a central role in agricultural trade and investment.
Kenya: strong performance, structural gaps
In Kenya, agriculture contributes around 20–25% of GDP, rising to nearly 50% when including related sectors, and employs close to 70% of the population (source: World Bank). The country has built strong international positions in export-oriented value chains such as tea, flowers, and fresh produce, with avocado exports growing rapidly.
These sectors illustrate Kenya’s ability to develop competitive, internationally integrated value chains. However, they coexist with large segments of the agricultural system that remain fragmented and informally organized, limiting productivity and market integration.
The transformation challenge
Across East Africa, the main constraint is not production alone, but how value chains are structured. Limited aggregation, infrastructure gaps, and insufficient coordination between actors continue to constrain market access and value creation, contributing to post-harvest losses that can reach 20–30% (source: FAO).
This is particularly visible in staple crops such as maize, rice, and cassava, where productivity remains below potential, as well as in livestock systems, where growing demand is not yet matched by sufficiently organized supply chains.
The opportunity lies in strengthening the links between production, aggregation, processing, and market access. This requires investment in logistics and transformation, alongside the development of traceable and resilient supply systems. In this context, Kenya offers a natural entry point to design and scale such models across the region.
Apexagri perspective
At Apexagri, we focus on a central challenge: how to turn agricultural production into structured, resilient, and value-creating value chains.
The Africa Forward Summit will be a key opportunity to engage with stakeholders across the agri-food and investment ecosystem.
Our team will be in Nairobi ahead of the summit (May 7-8) with Marc Debets and Marianne Baker, to meet key actors in agriculture and investment.