The Ministry of Agriculture has delayed on expediting importation of yellow maize for live stocks into the country, sparing a competition between flour millers and animal feed manufacturers.
This has resulted in the yellow maize selling window at the black Sea region closed. This means that millers will not be able to import maize from Ukraine.
The Ministry of Agriculture had prepared a Cabinet memo in July — creating optimism in millers that it would be approved to pave the way for the importation of the grain in the wake of a biting shortage of white maize.
“The memo was not approved and the window along Black Sea has closed, however, we are still pushing to have it approved as we understand there are some consignments of yellow maize in Mexico,” said Joseph Karuri, chairperson of Association of Kenya animal Feed manufacturers.
The Ministry of Agriculture had approved the importation of 2.5 million bags of yellow maize to ease the current pressure on the white produce as well as cool off prices of animal feeds.
The decision arrived at after animal feed manufacturers met with Agriculture PS Hamadi Boga and Strategic Food Reserve (SFR) chief executive Omar Salat.
The move was to see traders and manufacturers bring in the yellow maize duty-free, the period under which the market has been closed.
