china imetumaliza

when I was in primary, many decades ago, the teacher organized a trip for us to PanPaper. I still remember the rotten eggs smell and touching a very big roll of very fine paper that we were told was usually for printing bibles. Its strange we are here now.

on toothpicks, Sunny Bindra did an article a few years back arguing that toothpicks while small items are actually very complex to manufacture

But all those other items you've mentioned? Why would any govt put obstacles for manufacturers?

Because guys in govt only care about collecting kickbacks. Nothing about policy and creating a good business environment that would enable industries to thrive.This means whenever you go shopping, you'll most likely foreign products.I recently bought Egyptian made towel and toothpick made in China. Not that I "love" buying foreign items but that's what's available in every mall you walk into.

Yesterday i was at the supermarket looking for printing paper. And the paper in stock was from Egypt (do they have any forests?), brazil, portugal and indonesia. I believe if panpaper mills was just to concentrate in making printing paper then they can make money. They could also export to our neighbours.

I see you trying to draw the "its cheaper to produce it elsewhere" line. But look at it this way, China imports timber from West Africa to produce the paper in bulk (taking advantage of economies of scale) then distribute it to the rest of the world. Now lets look at the economy, the person who is cutting and supplying that timber from West Africa is probably Chinese, the ship ferrying has employed Chinese, the receivers at the port, the company that extracts the paper, the byproducts all remain in China to be distributed, the only jobs we create here are the kazi ya mkono, those who will import the paper, the clearing & forwarding guys and those printing & publishing. I might not be wrong if I said those are just 100 jobs.

If you are wondering why China is experiencing a slow down, its mainly because, America started taking its jobs back. We have to start bringing jobs back, sell Pan paper and ignore the western politics noise and yes more and more power is needed.

As for the toothpick vibe from sunny bindra, hizo toothpick hazichongwi na mkono, import that machine not the end product.

Last, Brand Kenya should stop usurping Kenya tourism Boards job and focus on selling Brand Kenya to Kenyans. And that means selling "MADE IN KENYA" running programming that shows people the benefits of buying Kenyan as opposed to that popcorn from South Africa or some Arabic packaged cooking oils.

Did you see some sch asking kids to go with a metallic bucket from INDIA?

This happened to companies like Mountex, remember them days when those rubber shoes by Bata would be made using Kenyan made cotton. There was also a company making match boxes pale Chaka on your way to Nanyuki. Nowadays its used by Brookside.
Wasn't there Webuye paper mills? Soon we might talk the same about Sugar industries.
Whan you talk about the cost of production, the question i always ask is why are things so dams expensive to produce in Kenya? Sugar imports, now there are eggs and even chicken.
There is a DR in Nyeri who has gone big on chicken (can't rememeber his name) he said the other day on TV how he has started the decline since stuff like chicken feeds are being taxed by the state. No wonder people will continue eating South African eggs.
Some one tell me how much is that chicken in Kenchic if you buy a grilled one.Go to Nakumatt and check the price of a deep frozen chicken , guess the last time i saw it was 1000sh , where i live , such goes for 400ksh.
Watched Mutua's interview on Maendeleo chap chap when he said how he built a road for 600M instead of 1.6B. Why are things so damn expensive in Kenya

WHY WHY !!

@murchr you this psychologist/philosopher pops in to confuse and throw people off balance... Anyway. This this hit me and we were discussing with friends.
There was a thread here on buy Kenya build Kenya where I mentioned that a good number of Kenyans manufacture low quality products and price them highly!
Top to that as mentioned, the cost of production is too high.
The 'high' prices tagged on factors of production majorly labour and raw materials. Employees want to be paid so high while they steal from the factory. Suppliers quote high prices . We are a greedy lot, our appetite for money is too high...

I was shocked to see chicken feet from china on sale at Nakumatt. Surely Kenchic can satisfy the local demand. Such imports, plus toothpicks, matchboxes, toilet paper, chicken eggs etc should be banned. They can be produced locally.

What say you about the carcinogenic wheelbarrows as compared to those wheelbarrows in Gikomba? If we continued producing blankets in rivatex are you saying the quality would have been the same? Are you saying that the challenges Unilever got in producing Kimbo are different from what Bidco encountered? What about Kinuthia of Nice and Lovely? Didn't he operate in the same environment/country that the Unilever were on?

Multinationals are out to make money, thats why they choose to close operations in environments where profits are minimal. In the Unilever case, they will choose to operate in Egypt and import. I hope L'oreal is not planning to do that with Kinuthias Nice and lovely