Grain traders have urged governments in East Africa to remove trade barriers. This comes as the region is experiencing alarming food insecurity and hiked prices.
EAC Affairs PS Betty Maina (pictured) said more than 10 million of East Africans are victims of severe drought, famine and malnutrition with the most vulnerable — women, children and the elderly — suffering most in the shortage.
“Making matters worse is the recent invasion of the fall army worm, which is wreaking havoc on farms across Eastern and Southern Africa. The effect of all this is that inflation rates have spiked in recent months, meaning that more households are struggling to put enough food on the table,” Maina said during the Eastern Africa Grain Council annual meeting in Nairobi on Saturday.
The PS said EAC states are providing food aid and cash transfers to the most vulnerable people to ease the current crisis, as well as increasing investment to boost agricultural productivity.
The National Treasury last month zero-rated importation of maize from Ethiopia and Mexico to ease the shortage and
help stabilise the high cost of a 2kg packet of maize flour, which had hit a high of Sh153.
The prevalence of trade barriers, according to the Eastern Africa Grain Council, has pushed trade from formal, well-regulated channels to informal, unregulated and inefficient channels.
“Today, 70 per cent of maize, 63 per cent of dry beans, 57 per cent of rice and 89 per cent of millet are traded informally across national borders. This translates to higher food safety risks, lower quality, high post-harvest losses, higher transaction costs and ultimately higher consumer prices. As a result, 10 million East Africans are on the verge of hunger,”
EAGC chief executive officer Gerald Masila said.