The “Market and Value Chain Survey” (MVC) which was part of the preparation of the “Master Plan on Logistics of Northern Economic Corridor”.

The Northern Economic Corridor (NEC) is a critical regional trading route supporting the major part of economic activities in Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi with its feeder lines also connecting South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. NEC starts from Mombasa to reach the inland major part of economic activities in Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi with its feeder lines also connecting South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. It was expected that the formulation of an integrated development plan of logistics networks along the NEC can greatly catalyze the economic development of the region. It is this transport infrastructure under development and the need to use the infrastructure to catalyze tradable economic activities along the corridor that inter alia, motivates the Survey. The Value Chain (VC) analysis was aimed at catalyzing the increased export production through the NEC infrastructure to increase trade and development along the NEC.

The objectives of the MVC that covered 7 VCs were as follows:

• To identify key commodities that are expected to grow as major export commodities of the areas along the corridors. The commodities should be export-oriented with the potentials of higher value addition in Kenya along the area of the corridor;
• To estimate the size of export markets of selected commodities produced in Kenya; and
• To identify critical issues regarding logistics for the development of the value chain (VCs) of the commodities. In consonant with the above objectives, there were 2 key components to the assignment., namely:
  1. End-market analysis and estimation of market size; and
  2. Detailed VC survey and analysis).