Register as a food crops dealer, importer or exporter (cereals, beans and other food crops)
Agriculture and Food Authority - Food Crops Directorate · sources read 2 Oct 2026
Register with AFA's Food Crops Directorate before you trade, transport, process, import or export cereals, beans and other listed food crops. Registration costs KSh 3,000 for a dealer and KSh 30,000 for an importer or exporter, and lasts one year.
- Fee
- KSh 3,000Dealer registration (e.g. marketing agent, processor, transporter)KSh 30,000Importer or exporter registration
- How long
- Up to 14 days
- Where
- Agriculture and Food Authority (AFA), Food Crops Directorate. Importers and exporters apply online on AFA IMIS (imis.afa.go.ke).
What you need
- Application form (Form 2A in the Food Crops Regulations)
- For a company: certificate of incorporation or registration number, and copies of directors' IDs
Steps
- Fill in the registration form (Form 2A), ticking your category, such as marketing agent, transporter, importer or exporter.
- Importers and exporters apply online on the AFA IMIS portal and pay the registration fee there.
- AFA should issue your certificate of registration within 14 days, or reject it with reasons within 7 days.
- If rejected, fix the issues and resubmit within 14 days, or appeal to court within 21 days.
Watch out
- Trading in food crops without registering is an offence: a fine of up to KSh 5 million, up to 3 years in jail, or both.
- Registration lasts one year, so renew it every year.
- Registration is not enough to ship: each import needs an import clearance permit, and each export a certificate of conformity, from AFA.
Who can apply
- Must register: marketing agents, exporters, importers, processors, transporters, large-scale growers and growers' associations.
- A 'dealer' is anyone handling food crops as a business, including importers and exporters.
Official sources (3)
- The Crops (Food Crops) Regulations, 2019 (Legal Notice No. 217 of 2019) infotradekenya.go.ke · read 2 Oct 2026
- Register as an importer with the AFA Food Crops Directorate (FCD) infotradekenya.go.ke · read 2 Oct 2026
- AFA IMIS imis.afa.go.ke · read 2 Oct 2026