Africa Newsletter 08-06-19

Maize prices are set to ease after the beginning of harvest in parts of South Rift and western Kenya and with the national strategic food reserve set to release additional maize to the millers. In additional, animal feeds millers have been given permission to import 2.5 Million tonnes of yellow maize, a key ingredient in animal feed. This should ease competition for the white maize among maize flour millers.

Pulses harvesting has started in parts of lower eastern Kenya with prices still high currently but likely to ease in the next few weeks as more farmers begin harvest, which is expected to be good this year.

The harvest continues with maize coming into the Greater Kampala market at UGX 1,000 per kg while in Mubende it is quoted at UGX 900 per kg. There continues to be a lot of grain with high moisture content due to the late rains that have affected the drying processes in the growing regions. Soybeans remain at UGX 1,700 to UGX 1,750 per kg in Kampala as more will be coming out of the fields for drying. Nambale beans are quoted at UGX 2,100 per kg in Kampala.

Tanzania will not be selling maize grains to Kenya as earlier announced, but as flour, President John Magufuli said this past week in Dar es Salaam when he received a delegation from Nairobi that was returning gold and cash stolen from the country. Maize trade was part of bilateral deals agreed on during President Uhuru Kenyatta’s visit to Tanzania earlier this month. This latest pronouncement will help cool tempers that had been stoked by delays in clearing maize consignments at the Holili-Taveta border crossing, with Tanzanian traders accusing Kenyan authorities of laxity. This past week, truck drivers delivering maize from Tanzania also said they were stranded in Kenya’s coastal city Mombasa with their consignment as millers were reluctant to buy the grain.