The Association has yet again achieved other two milestones and these two, on the same day! The good news is that after what seemed like a long wait, AEA signed to membership of Horticultural Crops Directorate(HCD), a Directorate under the Agriculture and Food Authority (AFA) whose mandate is to oversee the Regulation, Development and Promotion of the Horticultural crops sector, through the provisions of the AFA Act (Act No. 13 of 2013), Crops Act (Act 16 of 2013)and other relevant laws and regulations. HCD is one of the eight Directorates under the Agriculture and Food Authority (AFA).

It is now a requirement for all Horticulture producers to belong to an Association recognized by HCDA to be given an export licence.

In a meeting attended by outgoing AEA Chairman, Mr. Tom Ochieng and AEA CEO, Mr. Wesley Siele early morning of Friday 16th July 2021 at AFA Headquarters in Nairobi, Mr. Wilfred Yako, Assistant Director, Regulations and Compliance with his colleague Ms. Josephine Simiyu the Manager in charge of Regulations and Compliance assured the team of their support to ensure all members are compliant and no company under AEA membership will be denied certification since all the required information will be provided and consultation will be as often as need be to ensure they are compliant. 

The Association hosted implementors of the HFB CBA previously known as Flower Growers Group (FGG) CBA in Naivasha to present the physical CBA documents to all the 72 implementors.

The issuance ceremony was attended by Human Resources Practitioners, Finance and people handling Payroll. It was also the first time in history of CBAs that the Kenya Plantation and Agricultural Workers’ Union (KPAWU) officials were sharing a platform with implementors to discuss the CBA and the implementation matrix to ensure uniformity in application and subsequently avoid disputes being raised by the union over wrong implementation.

Speaking to the attendees after issuing all members with their copies, Mr. Tom Ochieng attributed the fast negotiations to the good working relationship the Association has had with the union as social partners which also contributed to favorable terms to both the employer and the employee in view of the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic has had on businesses.

 This will be remembered as the first CBA to ever be signed almost two months before the implementation dates. This will mean ample time to employers to prepare and plan well ahead and reducing cost of paying employees a lot of accumulated arrears.