Government exposes Chinese companies ignoring directive banning Veneer exports
CS Aden Duale goes after Chinese companies that ignored government directive banning Veneer exports
CS Aden Duale goes after Chinese companies that ignored government directive banning Veneer exports.
Environment Cabinet Secretary Aden Duale on Saturday hit out at top Chinese and Indian companies over illegal logging of immature trees from the country and exporting them to the countries before coming to resale them as finished products in the country.
Five days ago, Duale declared a ban on the exportation of the robusta eucalyptus tree bark to other countries in effort to protect local forests in the country after arguing that the trade contributed to deforestation.
He revealed a sinister play where the foreign companies convince the small traders in Kenya to log immature trees and buy them at small amounts of money while they benefit from the sale after doing a value addition to the trees before re-exporting them to ship-making companies in Kenya at high prices.
‘’The countries do value addition and come and sell to us them as finished products at expensive prices targeting companies that make marine boats and the shipyards in Kenya,’’ Duale revealed.
‘’Because the people want money, they are cutting very immature trees before they even reach ten years and then they export them to China and India,’’ he added.
The CS told the media that Kenya loses billions of shillings from the illegal trade of trees to the mentioned countries as a result of lack of regulatory frameworks.
According to reports from official documents from the trade sector, one of the mentioned companies exported 420,000 on July 10, this year alone.
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Duale said that the exports were largely aided by the small duty imposed on the exportation of the tree products.
He also called on the need to protect local small scale Kenyan traders from the economic exploitation by the foreign companies who took advantage of them.
According to the CS, the exportation is a risk to the government’s afforestation plans of planting 15 billion trees in the country by 2030.
‘’How do we convince Kenyan citizens, private sector players and the government to plant trees when there are individuals who are coming to our country to cut immature trees and then send them to China,’’ he wondered.
He also revealed that the mentioned companies were chased from the neighbouring countries of Uganda and Tanzania over illegal logging activities. The ban comes just a week after the CS ordered an immediate ban on the export of raw veneer materials, a move he said was aimed at safeguarding the country’s environmental future.
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