Volcanic ash cloud hits Kenyan agriculture

Apr 19, 2010, 15:07 GMT

Nairobi - Kenya's agriculture sector has been hit by the closure of most of Europe's airspace due to the volcanic ash cloud, with millions of dollars of flowers and vegetables having gone to waste by Monday.

Thousands of tons of flowers and vegetables are waiting to flown to Europe and thousands of agricultural workers have been laid off temporarily as harvesting stops.

'On average, we ship some 1,000 tons worth 3 million dollars per day,' Stephen Mbithi, chief executive of the Fresh Produce Exporters Association of Kenya, told the Daily Nation newspaper.

'We have handled drought, El Nino and the post-election violence, but we have not seen anything like this.'

Kenya's economy is slowly recovering from the global economic crisis and the post-election violence that followed 2007's disputed presidential elections.

The agriculture sector provides around a quarter of Kenya's gross domestic product (GDP) and employs hundreds of thousands.

Europe gets over 30 per cent of its fresh flowers from Kenya, accounting for virtually all of the East African nation's flower exports.

The Eyjafjallajokull volcano in Iceland began erupting last Wednesday, throwing out ash that winds carried across much of Europe.

Airlines and airports are calling for airspace to be at least partially opened after test flights showed the ash cloud caused no damage to aircraft.