The honest picture. What you pay at Mombasa to bring Turkish knitwear in, why there is no duty advantage over China, and how to model your real landed cost.
Before you compare any two suppliers, you need the duty picture straight — because it shapes everything downstream. So here is the honest version for Kenya: there is no free trade agreement between Türkiye and Kenya, knitwear enters under the EAC Common External Tariff at 25%, and China is treated identically. On duty, Turkey and China are at parity. Nobody at this factory will tell you otherwise. What follows is the full breakdown so you can model it yourself.
Kenya doesn't set its import duty alone — it applies the East African Community Common External Tariff, shared with Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, South Sudan and the DRC. Under the current EAC structure, finished textiles and garments (HS Chapters 50–63, which cover knitwear) sit in the top band at 25%. There is no preferential line for Türkiye, and none for China either: both are most-favoured-nation origins paying the full rate. That parity is the single most important fact for your costing.
The EAC CET rate on the customs (CIF) value of the goods. The starting block of your landed cost.
Value Added Tax, charged by KRA on the duty-inclusive value. If you're VAT-registered you generally recover it, but it's still cash out at the border.
The Import Declaration Fee and Railway Development Levy are charged on the CIF value. Small individually, but real — build them in.
Agent fees, port charges at Mombasa, and transport up to Nairobi or your warehouse. Get these quoted per container by your clearing agent.
Kenya runs a pre-export verification regime, so compliance starts before the goods leave Türkiye, not when they arrive. You raise an Import Declaration Form (IDF) through KRA's system. The shipment then needs a Certificate of Conformity under the PVoC (Pre-Export Verification of Conformity) programme, confirming the goods meet the relevant KEBS (Kenya Bureau of Standards) requirements — for apparel this typically covers labelling, fibre composition and care information. The inspection is done at origin by a KEBS-appointed agency. Skip it and you risk penalties or a destination inspection that holds your container. A good supplier will prepare clean documentation and fibre/care data so the CoC is issued without drama.
Duty in Kenya is charged on the CIF value — Cost, Insurance and Freight to Mombasa — not on the ex-works or FOB price. So your 25% is applied after ocean freight and insurance are added on top of the goods value. The voyage from Mersin to Mombasa runs roughly 18–25 days via Suez, the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean, and that freight figure becomes part of the dutiable base. A worked sequence looks like this: FOB Mersin → add freight + insurance → CIF Mombasa → +25% duty → +IDF/RDL → +16% VAT → + clearing/inland = landed cost in Nairobi. Model it in that order and there are no surprises.
If duty is identical to China, the answer can't be tariffs — and we won't pretend it is. The case for Türkiye is quality, flat-knit and WHOLEGARMENT capability, a low 250-piece MOQ, reliable repeats and an English-language workflow that matches how Kenyan brands actually run. You buy Turkish knit because the garment and the working relationship are worth it, not because you save at the border. That's the honest pitch, and it's the only one we'll make. The shilling can be volatile too, so most B2B orders are priced and settled in USD, often against a letter of credit — worth factoring into your cash plan.
Send your styles and target quantities and we'll give you indicative ex-works pricing plus an estimated freight figure to Mombasa, so you can build the duty and VAT on top. Always confirm the final rate and any levies with a licensed Kenyan clearing agent against your exact HS codes — the numbers here are a guide, not a customs ruling.