This archive report was first published on 6 July 2020.
Kenya's import bill for second-hand clothes and footwear has taken a hit due to the Covid-19 pandemic, with the value of shipments dropping by Sh600.4 million in the three months to March.
The Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) reported that the value of shipments contracted to Sh4.79 billion between January and March, down from Sh5.39 billion in the same period last year.
The decline marked the first drop in many years and came at a time when key source markets such as China, the US, and European countries had already instituted Covid-19 containment measures.
According to the KNBS data, the import bill for second-hand clothes, popularly called mitumba, thinned by Sh145 million, or 3.58 percent, to Sh3.92 billion from Sh4.07 billion in the first quarter of 2019.
Expenditure on footwear imports, on the other hand, dipped 34.46 percent, or Sh454.80 million, in the January-March 2020 period to Sh864.9 million compared with Sh1.32 billion traders spent in the first quarter of 2019.
Business managers had previously painted a picture of weak circulation of cash in the economy, which had eroded consumer purchasing power and hurt demand even before the Covid-19 shocks struck.
Higher quality and relatively lower prices for mitumba have continued to drive demand for the merchandise at the expense of locally-made clothes amid higher margins enjoyed by traders in informal markets.
The Kenya Bureau of Standards (Kebs) imposed a temporary ban on the merchandise in line with one of its standards, which prohibits buying second-hand clothes from countries experiencing epidemics.
Trade Cabinet Secretary Betty Maina has given Kebs the go-ahead to explore the possibility of putting in place guidelines which could enable resumption of importation of the merchandise without exposing dealers and customers to the risk of contracting the virus.
