Kenya allows Uganda dairy imports amid claims of exclusion

Kenya has started allowing dairy products from Uganda to access the local market but authorities are now being accused of being selective in issuing permits to milk processors from the neighbouring country.

Some of Uganda's milk products are now being spotted in Western Kenya markets, indications that the Kenya Dairy Board (KDB) could be easing the trade blockade that since March last year caused jitters in the industry.

The dairy industry regulator has however been accused of issuing the permits selectively allowing some of the dairy firms access to Kenyan market while it had blocked milk from some of the processors.

Among the notable players who have been blocked include Brookside Limited, whose parent company is Kenya's Brookside Dairy.

KDB was not available for comment on whether it is issuing permits and also why it is not licensing some of the Uganda-based processors to export to Kenya.

Traders in parts of Western Kenya and the North Rift confirmed the availability of Uganda's Lato and Dairy Top milk in the local market, with industry sources saying the KDB had allowed the importation of the brands, while denying import permits to Brookside Limited's Fresh Dairy brand.

Traders are now calling for the KDB to review and solve the impasse so as to give consumers a wider choice of products.

"Dairy products from Uganda are relatively cheaper compared to local brands due to the lower costs of production there. Consumers are asking why we no longer stock a product like Fresh Dairy, but we are not receiving any supplies from Kampala," Kevin Owino, a wholesale stockist in Mamboleo, Kisumu, said.

The businessmen, who until March last year were stocking mainly long-life milk imported from Uganda, said the impasse over the movement of certain dairy brands from Kampala had affected their operating margins, with customers continuing to make inquiries on when milk from the neighbouring country would be available.

In March last year, KDB stopped issuing permits for Ugandan dairy products in the Ken Trade system, despite a notice banning dairy imports issued by the same regulator having been rescinded by the Principal Secretary, State department for Livestock Development.

The trade tensions affecting Uganda's Brookside Limited continue unabated despite a joint communique between the two countries signed on May 17 when President Yoweri Museveni visited Kenya, during which the two nations committed to solidification of bilateral relations for mutual prosperity and development.

Last month, Brookside Ltd's general manager in Kampala, Benson Mwangi said the processor had been denied 114 permits by the KDB, and that a string of reminders to the Kenyan dairy regulator had hit a brick wall.

Kenya accounts for more than 80 per cent of Uganda's exported milk, according to data by Uganda Dairy Development Authority, but the difficulties it faces in exporting the products to its neighbour are pushing it to explore other markets, mostly in North and West Africa.