AfricaPress-Tanzania: AUTHORITIES in Tanga Region yesterday refuted reports about maize produced in the country and exported to Kenya lacking in quality and deemed unfit for human consumption.
Addressing reporters here, Regional Commissioner Martine Shigela rejected the reports when addressing traders at the Horohoro border post, visiting the area to assess the situation after eruption of those reports in social media.
The RC’s reaction came after media reported that Kenya banned maize imports from Tanzania and Uganda, citing a letter by the acting Director-General of the Agriculture and Food Authority, Kello Harsama to Pamela Ahago, the Commissioner of Customs in the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA), saying that the imports should stop after a survey conducted indicated maize from the two countries is not fit for human consumption.
“The authority has been conducting surveillance on the safety of food imports into Kenya. The results from maize imported from Uganda and Tanzania have revealed high levels of mycotoxins that are consistently beyond safety limits,” the letter reads.
Shigela described the reports as misleading, saying there was a strategy by some traders bent on tarnishing trade relations between the two countries, and East African Community (EAC) member states.
he said the situation at the border post was good and trade was continuing normally with maize moving to Kenya without hindrance. Traders were bringing in their goods from Kenya without any bother, he stated.
He asked traders to continue with their activities, underlining that the government was watchful, hinting at plans to further improve facilities at the border area.
“I stress that the border area is calm. Reports saying Tanzania’s maize destined to Kenya was unfit for human consumption are outright lies; we cannot export food unfit for human consumption to Kenya, as if it were so, we would have suffered such diseases ourselves first. Our relations with Kenya are good and I again stress that the maize was being exported to Kenya without any obstacles,” he said.
“Conduct your trade peacefully and not fear anything regarding those reports. It appears these are strategies by some traders to disrupt access to the maize market,” he reiterated.
The border post acting manager Nsajigwa Mwambegele said that following social media reports investigations were conducted which found the reports to be untrue, elaborating that the movement of goods continues between the two sides.
“We received a letter saying that maize from Tanzania had toxins that make it unfit for human consumption, but we saw the contents of the letter as lacking merit and so we continued with the movement of the commodity. It was being received on the other side without any problem,” he stated.
On their part, maize traders said there were rumours tied to the reports but after communicating with Kenya government authorities, they were told that there was no banning order on maize imports into the country.
Jafo Otara, a maize exporter said that he has engaged in the maize export trade to Kenya for six years now and had not come across such a challenge, “and when we communicated with the Kenya’s Agriculture ministry we were told that the said letter did not emanate from them.”
“We have carefully examined the situation and discovered that it is more like sabotage by large traders bent on destroying the market, as the Kenya Agriculture Minister said the letter must have come from the forest, but there was no such letter from his office,” he elaborated.
On Saturday, long queues of trucks were seen at the Namanga border after KRA officials reportedly denied the trucks entry into Kenya.
Hussein Bashe, the deputy minister for Agriculture was on Sunday quoted as affirming that the government was taking the ban on maize imports seriously. “The government is closely monitoring the ban and I can assure business people and the general public that the government will continue to protect the country’s interests.”
A Kenyan public agency regulating trade in scheduled crops said the importation of the crop has been stopped with immediate effect as they work on seeing the way forward in crop trade with the two countries.
“The Republic of Kenya is however committed to facilitating safe trade with her trading partners and look forward to working closely with all stakeholders to address the concern.”
The news that is now being denied was received with shock as it would hit hard traders and farmers who earn a living off the maize sold to the Kenyan market, as maize is among the leading exports to Kenya.
Experts describe mycotoxins as naturally occurring toxins produced by certain moulds (fungi) and can be found in food.
