The government has levied fresh import and export taxes on a Coast-grown cash crop used for food colouring and cosmetics production, in a development that signals rising State interest in the largely unregulated subsector.
Under the new Crops (Bixa) Regulations, 2025, exporters of processed bixa products will pay a levy equivalent to one percent of the consignment value while those shipping out raw bixa will pay three percent.
The regulations also impose a tax on importers at the rate of two percent of the customs value for any bixa or bixa product brought into the country.
The introduction of the levies marks the first structured tax framework for the crop, which for years has operated under loose regulatory supervision.
Bixa is a tropical shrub that’s disease, pest and nearly drought-resistant, actively grown across the coastal region in areas such as Kwale, Mswabweni, Lamu, Malindi and Kiunga.
Locally known as mrangi, the tree’s yields comprise bright red fruits that have numerous seeds which contain bixin, used for colouring cheese, fish, salad oil, margarine as well as in cosmetics such as lipsticks.
“There shall be imposed a levy on exported and imported bixa and bixa products for purposes of development of the bixa subsector,” reads the regulatory outline published by Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe.
There are two bixa farming seasons in a year with a kilogramme of the yield going for between Sh50 and Sh70, earning a farmer about Sh150,000 for every tilled acre in a year.
Experts say the plant matures fully in about four to five years and has an economic life of 20 years, but could be harvested from about a year in the farm.
The crop was introduced to Kenya by the Japanese and Kenyan governments in the 1970s before its production died a slow death due to low market prices and little regulatory follow up by the State.
The bixa crop is one of the world’s most important natural colourant, making for about 70 percent of world’s natural dyes.
