East Africa Regional Grain Trade Analysis for the Week Ending 8th September 2017

The Week’s Market Analysis

Figure 1 East Africa Regional Grain Trade Flow for the Week Ending 8 ^th September 2017

Beans (3,952MT) was the highest traded commodity, followed by Sorghum (2,513MT), Rice (1,584MT), Millet (1,221MT), Maize (1,108MT) and Wheat (1,068MT). Other traded volumes are indicated in Table 1 “The Week’s Market Prices for Select Markets”
Maize: – There was unusually low volumes (57MT) of maize being exported from Uganda to Kenya, this was caused by increasing maize prices in other markets within Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, and DRC in comparison to Busia. Uganda exported more maize to Rwanda (390MT), as Rwanda exported to DRC (404MT). The maize trade flow for the week changed from Kenya to Rwanda.
Sorghum; There is a continuing trade pattern that started in mid –August 2017 of Tanzania exporting Sorghum to Uganda, then Uganda exporting the sorghum to Kenya. The pattern is a result of Tanzania’s trader barriers towards Kenya. The media reported that Kenya and Tanzania’s trade cabinet secretaries are in discussions on Tanzania’s trader barriers towards Kenya, hopefully the region will see a change in this pattern, which has resulted in increased prices for some of the commodities.
Pigeon Peas; Tanzania after a very long time finally exported pigeon peas to Kenya (21MT). According to Tanzania’s media, the country has a pigeon peas glut which has drastically reduced the price of pigeon peas causing farmers huge losses. There are also reports of traders buying the excess surplus for export to the Indian market.

The Week’s Market Prices for Select Markets

Table 1- Market Prices for Select Markets in the East Africa Region for the Week Ending 8^th September 2017

The prices of commodity especially beans and maize has started to increase. Nairobi has declining quantities of cow peas and pigeon peas, all which are interesting marketing opportunities for Tanzania.

The Week’s Market Opportunities

Betta Grains continues to receive various request to buy and sell grains and cereal. Kindly visit our eDuka page https://www.bettagrains.com/?page_id=1236 for a more up to date list.

Table 2 The Week’s Business Opportunities.

Author; Fostina Mani, Betta Grains. Fostina.Mani@bettagrains.com, Twitter: @FostinaMani.

Acknowledgment: The data used for the analysis has been obtained from; IAM, Government of Kenya, Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock & Fisheries, Government of Tanzania, Ministry of Trade and Industry, EAGC, RATIN, Farm Gain Uganda, FEWS NET, & Betta Grains.

Disclaimer. Due to unavailable of data on various border points on formal cross-border trade flows and volumes in the public arena. The volumes indicated above are mostly from the informal cross-border data that is available to the public. The purpose of the analysis, is simply to provide an indication of the East Africa Regional Trade flow to SMEs, Smallholder Farmers, and Other Stakeholders in a manner and language that is applicable, simple, and makes sense. Those desiring to obtain actual trade volumes are advised to contact various internationally funded government projects that have been mandated to provide the regional trade data for public good.