Grain trade is set to increase in East Africa following the gazettement of nine product standards for staple foods and 2 standards for sampling and test methods.
Eastern Africa Grain Council (EAGC) Executive Director Gerald Masila says with the application of the gazetted standards, famers in the region will access better and larger markets, while consumers will be provided with safe and high quality food grain products.
The gazetted East African standards, which will be domesticated in each EAC Partner States, were launched and handed over for implementation during the Eastern Africa Grain Council end of year Members’ Forum held Wednesday at Nairobi hotel.
Officiating at the forum, EAC Integration PS Betty Maina said the East African Community Standards for Cereals and Pulses were first gazetted in 2013.
Maina said the standards were a critical step towards addressing key obstacles to formal structured trading systems that require consistency and standardization of products quality.
However, she said, a number of challenges with regard to the application of the standards were experienced soon after the adoption in 2014.
To address the issues, EAGC embarked on investigation of the prevailing challenges affecting the 2013 standards implementation, and conducted a regional survey covering three components, including review of existing technical gaps, grain laboratories benchmarking and cross border assessment.
The survey revealed a number of gaps including some safety and quality parameters, sampling and testing methods, as key constraints limiting the realization of Structured Grain Trade within the region.
These gaps necessitated a review, a process that has culminated to the new revised harmonized 2017 EAC Staple foods standards.
The nine priority product standards reviewed were maize grain, wheat grain, milled rice, dry beans, dry soy beans, maize flour, wheat flour, sorghum flour and millet flour.
Some of the parameters addressed through the revision of the standards were moisture content levels, discolouration of grains and aflatoxin, among others.
EAGC, with support from development partners including Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA), USAID, DFID/Food Trade, and CTA among others, has been partnering with the EAC in the standards harmonisation process for cereals, pulses and their products since 2010 and has mobilized and committed resources, and grain stakeholder participation in the process.
“The Gazetted revised Standards will become legally binding in all partner states 6 months after publication in the gazette. This will be a great effort to facilitate Intra-Regional grain trade by reducing standards-related technical barriers to grain trade that had previously hampered such trade,” said Maina.
Speaking at the same forum, Trade PS Dr Chris Kiptoo shared the government’s vision for trade in the next 5 years, which among other priorities will promote 100% food security and nutrition in Kenya.
Kiptoo called upon EAGC as a key partner to continue working closely with the government in the implementation of the grain standards and in advising on diversification to other grains to reduce the demand for maize for human food and animal feeds.
“EAGC plans to undertake capacity building and awareness forums in each country and to work with the EAC and National Bureaus of Standards to develop national standards implementation road maps as we call upon the EAC partner states to move with speed to ensure effective implementation,” he said.
“A scorecard approach and a regular market surveillance will be much needed as the next step as a mechanism to track overall implementation of the standards,” he added.
The PS further noted that the EAGC’s regional grain trading system, which is a web based electronic system known as G-SOKO, will also promote the adoption of the revised EAC standards through certified warehouses, which have a role of bulking grains that conform with the quality parameters.
He appreciated the various partners and stakeholders involved in the harmonization and review of the grain standards led by the East African Community (EAC) Secretariat, including the Kenya Bureau of Standards (KeBS), TBS in Tanzania, BBN (Burundi), RSB (Rwanda) and UNBS (Uganda).
The USAID –East Africa Trade and Investment Hub (The Hub) supported the review of the Standards as well as the UKAID- Food Trade Eastern and Southern Africa (FTESA) who supported the regional standards survey, national consultations, standards awareness at the farmer level and graders training.
The Eastern Africa Grain Council is a regional organisation with membership drawn from across the Eastern and Southern Africa.
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Membership is drawn from grain value chain stakeholders currently with presence in 10 countries across ,including Burundi, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, Zambia, Malawi, South Sudan, DRC Congo and Ethiopia.
EAGC’s key products and services include promotion of structured trading system (STS) through the warehouse receipting systems (WRS), and Regional Grain Trading platform (G-Soko), Market Information Systems (MIS) offered through the Regional Agricultural Trade Intelligence Network (RATIN), and evidence-based Policy Advocacy and Training and Capacity Building through the Eastern Africa Grain Institute (EAGI).