Kenyan Corn Affected by Aflatoxin Outbreak, Business Daily Says

Corn growers in Kenya lost billions of shillings of revenue after grain merchants rejected deliveries contaminated with aflatoxin, Business Daily reported, citing the National Cereal and Produce Board.

Some of the infected corn may have been consumed after being sold to “rogue millers” and consumers of unprocessed grain, the Nairobi-based newspaper said. The corn was from Kenya’s eastern region, where 70 percent of last season’s crop was contaminated with the fungus, it said.

Unga Group Ltd. had a shortage of raw materials after it rejected contaminated grain, the newspaper said, citing Managing Director Nick Hutchinson.

Aflatoxin develops when corn is exposed to excess moisture during storage, the newspaper said. The fungus, which can cause liver cancer and brain damage, killed 150 people in parts of Kenya’s Eastern Province in 2004, it said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Consolatah Lucas in Mombasa via the Johannesburg bureau at pmrichardson@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Antony Sguazzin in Johannesburg at asguazzin@bloomberg.net.