dc.description.abstract | The launching of the COMESA Free Trade Area on 31st October in 2000, at the
COMESA Summit of Heads of State and Government marked a step further towards the
long journey to establish a COMESA common market. Ideally, the Free Trade area was
launched to promote regional integration through trade and investment. Nine Member
states became pioneers. These are Djibouti, Egypt, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi
Mauritius, Sudan, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Some countries that were not ready to
participate in the free trade area arrangement pledged to become members later.
Following this development exports of certain products are now being exported. For
instance, Zambia started exporting sugar to Kenya. On the other hand, Kenyan firms
started exporting edible oil products to Zambia. In both countries, there have been
concerns about the survival of the local industries, the edible sector in Zambia for
instance and the sugar industry in case of Kenya. In both countries there have been calls
from industry players to ban imports. Both Governments have undertaken verification
missions in these two sectors to find a solution to problems facing their local industries.
It was out of this background, that a study into factors that make the Kenyan edible oil
firms competitive conceived. This study used the" diamond theory" model to find out
these factors. | en |