More than 20 Chinese companies from Yunnan Province participated in a specialty products promotion conference in Nairobi on Wednesday, seeking Kenyan partners and new markets for their products.
The forum, organised by the Department of Commerce of Yunnan Province, brought together government officials, business leaders and representatives of Chinese and Kenyan enterprises.
Yunnan officials said the province is particularly interested in expanding its coffee business with Kenya while creating opportunities for Chinese motorcycle manufacturers and distributors to enter the Kenyan market.
Li Yi, deputy director general of the Department of Commerce of Yunnan Province, said the growing Chinese market for coffee presented an opportunity for closer cooperation with Kenya.
“China’s coffee consumer market continues to expand, with rapidly upgrading demand for specialty coffee and deeply processed coffee products, offering immense market potential,” Li said.
She said Yunnan was seeking to build a stronger relationship with Kenya around coffee, with the province keen to establish a direct supply chain linking Kenyan producers to Chinese and global markets.
“Our focus is on matching high-quality green coffee bean procurement, striving to build a closed-loop cooperation model of ‘Kenyan quality raw materials + Yunnan deep processing + Chinese and global markets’,” Li said.
“We aim to jointly create distinctive Yunnan-Kenya coffee brands, explore global consumer markets together, and achieve complementary resources and shared value between the two regions.”
Kenya is one of the world's recognised producers of specialty coffee, while Yunnan has developed into an important coffee-producing, processing and consumption centre in China.
The province's coffee deep-processing rate has surpassed 80 per cent, with its industry producing roasted beans, concentrates, freeze-dried powders and other products.
Former African Union Commission deputy chairperson Erastus Mwencha said the two sides should move beyond conventional buying and selling towards investment, technology transfer and value addition.
“The opportunity before us now is to take that relationship to the next level—from trade in goods towards investment, industrial cooperation, technology transfer, value addition and mutually beneficial enterprise partnerships,” Mwencha said.
He said there was scope for cooperation in coffee production, research, planting technologies, processing, roasting, branding and market development.
“Our objective should therefore be to move from buying and selling towards knowledge-sharing, investment and integrated value chains that create greater value for farmers, businesses and consumers in both countries,” Mwencha said.
The former AU official also challenged Chinese companies to look beyond importing finished products into Kenya.
He pointed to local assembly, components manufacturing, technical training and technology transfer as areas that could create jobs and strengthen local industry.
A similar approach, he said, should apply to motorcycles, where Yunnan has a strong manufacturing base and Kenya has growing demand for affordable mobility.
“Such cooperation can create jobs, develop skills, strengthen local industry and generate lasting value for both Chinese and Kenyan enterprises,” Mwencha said.
Chinese Embassy minister counsellor Zhou Zhencheng urged businesses from both countries to take advantage of favourable trade policies, including zero tariffs and trade facilitation measures.
He identified coffee, motorcycles and spare parts as priority sectors.
“By focusing on areas such as coffee, motorcycles, and spare parts, we can establish stable and reliable supply-demand relationships, continuously promote the two-way flow of high-quality and specialty products, and translate policy opportunities into tangible orders, projects, and long-term stable mutually beneficial cooperation,” Zhou said.
The push comes against the backdrop of the Kenya-China Early Harvest Arrangement signed in March 2026, which marks a new phase of institutionalised economic cooperation between the two countries.
Zhou said China had implemented a zero-tariff policy on goods imported from African countries with which it has diplomatic relations, including Kenya, from May 1.
He said the move provided fresh opportunities for Kenyan exports into the Chinese market.
“The achievements demonstrate that China-Kenya economic and trade cooperation has a solid foundation and strong complementarity, and there remains significant room for growth in bilateral trade, especially in Kenya’s exports to China,” Zhou said.
Kenya National Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Erick Rutto said the forum marked a significant step towards expanding market access for Kenyan value-added products while encouraging joint ventures.
Zhou also urged Kenyan and Chinese business associations to strengthen cooperation in areas including market information, standards, certification and supply-demand matching to enable more small and medium-sized enterprises to participate in bilateral trade.
Mwencha said Kenya's strategic position within the East African Community and COMESA, together with the African Continental Free Trade Area, offered Chinese firms an opportunity to use the country as a gateway to the wider African market.
The conference is part of growing efforts to shift Kenya-China relations towards investment, manufacturing, technology cooperation and regional value chains.
