Kenya Government Failed to Heed Corn-Miller Stocks Warning
- Millers’ association warned state twice of looming shortfalls
- Strategic reserve fell to less than a day’s supply this month
corn
Photographer: Daniel Acker/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Kenyan corn millers warned the government twice in the past six months the country faced a shortage of the staple that’s left strategic reserves at less than a day’s supply.
Grain processors advised the government in November that a shortfall was looming and in February suggested that a 50 percent import duty be removed to enable shipments, said Paloma Fernandes, chief executive officer of the Cereal Millers Association. The nation, which declared a drought emergency in February, only gazetted the removal of the import tax in April, which meant shipments only started arriving this month.