How State gave animals a prime slot at dinner table

Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Willy Bett with millers representatives when he announced subsidised maize flour prices last week. [Photo: file/Standard]

Kenya’s stocks of white maize were depleted by manufacturers of animal feed after the Government initially turned down an offer to allow them to import yellow maize for livestock.

Feed manufacturers say they approached the Ministry of Agriculture in September last year and again in February, when they noted that competition with millers would cut down stocks for unga.

They asked the Government to allow them to import yellow maize duty-free to remove pressure on white maize, but the ministry refused.

“Due to severe drought and lack of forage for animals, a lot of pressure was exerted on animal feeds. However, raw materials became unavailable; demand and supply dynamics eventually led to increase in animal feed prices at the beginning of 2017,” said Association of Kenya Feed Manufacturers (Akefema) Chairman Humphrey Mbugua.

He said they, together with the Cereal Millers Association (CMA), approached the Government to allow Akefema members to import the maize, with the white variety freed to flour millers for human consumption.

“Bearing in mind that the country was in a state of famine and feed and food were becoming less, but more expensive, we further negotiated with the Ministry of Agriculture to request the Government, through the National Treasury, to waive import duty on specified quantity of yellow maize to be imported before July 31, 2017,” said Dr Mbugua.

When the Government eventually lifted duty on yellow maize in April, the damage had already been done and stocks were critically low.

“We have approved a duty waiver for yellow maize to eliminate competition with white maize for human consumption,” said Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Willy Bett last week.

However, no yellow maize has docked at Mombasa port, which means livestock is still feeding on white maize.

Dr Mbugua said the Government assented to the proposal upon fulfillment of certain bio-safety standards and requirements, which also specified the importing millers. Thereafter, due process for importation was started and the yellow maize is expected to arrive this weekend, he added.

Eastern Africa grows white maize for both human and animal consumption.

“Maize is an important component of animal feeds as it provides valuable energy for efficient growth rate. On average, 48 per cent of compounded animal feeds is maize,” said Dr Mbugua.

“The actual percentage in each feed type differs according to animal type and age. About one million bags of maize are used for animal feed per month.” he added.

Kenya produces about 40 million 90-kilogramme bags of maize annually, with per capita consumption of the cereal around 90 kilogrammes (or one bag of maize per person).

That means that the output is already hard-pressed to meet demand for unga, even before factoring in the animals.

A study by Tegemeo Institute found that within the cereal food group, the poor, medium and rich households allocated 83, 70 and 52 per cent of their cereal budget to maize flour.

The Agriculture ministry has tried to deflect the blame over the acute maize shortage by saying that there were 13 million bags in the market, enough to last the country until this month.

It instead blamed farmers and millers for hoarding the maize to create a shortage so that they can raise the prices.

Millers, on the other hand, are angry at the Government for letting them take the flak even after they agreed to sell their own stock to the State at Sh3,600 to bring down the price of unga.

In what has been a week of intense talks, with a lot of pressure from State House itself, it is emerging that the millers were arm-twisted by the Government - which was ready to sanction some of the big players if they did not play ball.

Millers are said to have told CS Bett to take responsibility for the raging food crisis. Insiders who attended a heated closed-door meeting with the ministry top officials have revealed accusations were traded over the biting maize shortage and soaring flour prices.

“Mr Bett turned down counsel about allowing duty-free importation of yellow maize for the manufacture of animal feeds to ease pressure on available stocks that would be processed for human consumption,” a source with direct access to the details of the meeting told Weekend Business.

It was only after assessing the dire shortage of maize availability within eastern and southern Africa that the Government allowed the cereal millers to import duty-free white maize for a period of four months, to lower the price of unga and serve as a stop-gap measure before the August 2017 maize harvesting season.

“The successful consultation among the millers, Government and farming community points to the need for continuous stakeholder engagement in mapping the planting, harvesting, storage and distribution of maize. This would also assist in forward planning to avoid reactionary panic reaction, especially in situations of lower-than-normal harvests,” said Dr Mbugua.