Few people ever see a container ship up close, but we all feel what it does. Tea in a cup in London, the coffee that pays a farmer's school fees, avocados on a supermarket shelf in Dubai: they all start at a farm and leave the country on a vessel from Mombasa or Lamu.
The numbers from 2025 show how much rides on that journey. Tea earned Sh186.9 billion in exports, with 652.8 million kilogrammes sold to 100 markets, up from 96 markets the year before. Coffee export earnings have doubled since 2021 to Sh52 billion, helped by strong global prices.
Horticulture exports reached 457,700 tonnes and brought in Sh143.8 billion. Behind those figures are people: more than 834,000 smallholder farmers in tea alone and over 200,000 direct jobs in horticulture.
Flowers mostly fly to Europe, though a small but growing share, today almost 10 percent, goes by sea. Fruit and vegetables for the Middle East largely go by sea, as do avocados bound for Europe, and avocado exporters alone fill between 3,000 and 4,000 refrigerated containers a year. Tea goes by sea too. For all these crops, the shipping line is the link between the farm gate and the buyer.
A shipping line is, in simple terms, a promise. Your cargo will leave Kenya on this date and arrive in its target market on that one. In 2025, the Port of Mombasa handled a record 45.45 million tonnes of cargo and 2.11 million TEUs, while the Port of Lamu handled 799,161 tonnes, up from 74,380 tonnes in 2024.
Together, the two ports illustrate Kenya’s growing capacity to serve regional and international trade, with Mombasa handling the bulk of cargo and Lamu emerging as an additional gateway.
The benefit does not stop at the quay. Before a container reaches the ship, it has passed through packhouses, cold stores, trucks, railway wagons and clearing offices, and every step employs people.
Investors are following that chain: in January this year, a cold storage operator raised US$19 million in debt financing to expand across East Africa, including a new facility in Mombasa.
Behind every sailing are many livelihoods. The government, through the Ministry of Agriculture, has set a target of raising what smallholders earn to Sh100 per kilogramme of green leaf by 2027, and a ship that sails on time protects that gain. Packhouses, cold stores, trucking firms and clearing agents hire in the towns and counties the cargo passes through, and new cold storage in Mombasa adds to that.
Dependable shipping also lets a cooperative commit to a distant buyer, plan its season and reinvest in the next one. That is what empowerment looks like here: farmers with more options, more bargaining power and more of the value in their own hands.
That chain matters most for fresh produce. Tea and coffee can wait in a warehouse, at a cost. An avocado cannot. Fruit leaves Kenya in refrigerated, controlled-atmosphere containers that keep it fresh for about 50 days, and that clock starts when the fruit is packed, not when the ship sails. Every day lost in the yard, at anchor or on a longer route comes out of the shelf life the buyer is paying for.
Despite carriers best efforts, sometimes the chain breaks, and exporters feel it first. In February this year, shipping lines and agents warned about vessel delays at Mombasa, with the port, inland depots and empty container yards all full. The causes are shared, from vessel scheduling to the handling of empty containers, and the fix has to be shared too.
In early April, Reuters reported that about eight million kilogrammes of tea sat in Mombasa warehouses because of shipping disruption linked to the conflict involving Iran. Earlier, Red Sea disruption raised freight costs for avocado exporters and stretched the voyage from Mombasa to Rotterdam from around 20 to 22 days to 37 or more.
For fresh produce, a delayed ship is a loss, not an inconvenience, and the farmer usually carries it. Tea does not spoil, but it loses value while it waits.
From the liner shipping industry’s perspective, a few conditions keep the market well served. Carriers look for a port where cargo moves reliably, because delays eat into margins on both sides. They look for steady, predictable policy, because ships are deployed where business is dependable. Where more services call at Mombasa, growers gain more sailing options and more room to negotiate.
For fresh produce, early planning between carriers and exporters on booking helps make sure a refrigerated container is waiting when the fruit is packed.
The good news is that Kenya is starting from a position of strength. At the Port of Mombasa, the planned expansion of berths 19B, 23 and 24, alongside additional yard space, is expected to add capacity for a further 1.4 million TEUs.
Meanwhile, the Port of Lamu handled 799,161 metric tonnes of cargo in 2025, up from 74,380 tonnes in 2024. Expanding capacity and developing alternative gateways are important steps, but their value also depends on reliable cargo movement. The next test is operational reliability: ensuring that a container loaded in Kericho, Nyeri or Naivasha moves through the logistics chain on schedule and reaches its buyer in good condition.
Kenya’s ability to earn more from what it grows depends on reliable shipping connections that keep goods moving to global markets. From the farmer growing tea in Kericho and the packhouse worker in Naivasha to the truck driver, port operator in Mombasa or Lamu, shipping line and policymakers shaping trade, every link in the chain has a role to play.
When these connections work reliably, the benefits extend beyond the ports to jobs, businesses, household incomes, classrooms and communities across the country. Reliable maritime connectivity is therefore more than a shipping story; it is a Kenyan growth story.
Damian Viccars, Director of Government Affairs, Europe at the World Shipping Council
