Tanzania is selling part of its maize stocks to the Middle East for making animal feeds as demand for livestock meals soar globally while Uganda is trading the commodity to the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan.
This comes in the wake of a projected decline in production in this year’s main crop being harvested currently, which has already seen the cost of a 90-kilogramme bag shoot to Sh5,000 from Sh4,500 in October.
Uganda and Tanzania are key in boosting Kenya’s stocks and a lack of sufficient maize in these nations will pile more pressure on consumers.
“Traditional sources of imports for Kenya, which are Uganda and Tanzania have found alternative markets in DRC, South Sudan and Arab countries, which are paying premium prices because of the global maize shortage,” said Gerald Masila, executive director at Eastern African Grain Council. “So now we’ve to compete with them. This is a red flag for us as we depend on the region to bridge the deficit.”