Outcry over UAE raw animal feed material exports

Animal feed manufacturers have raised concerns over the export of raw materials to Middle East countries which are offering premium prices, worsening an already existing shortage locally.

The Association of Animal Feed Manufacturers (Akefema), an umbrella organisation for feed makers, says it has established that by-products such as wheat bran, maize germ and wheat pollard are being exported to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia.

This comes at a time when feed manufacturers are grappling with high cost of these supplements following a sharp decline in supply in the local market, with processors passing on the extra cost to farmers.

“We have established that milling by-products are being exported to Saudi Arabia and UAE who are offering particularly lucrative prices, which our processors cannot compete with,” said Martin Kinoti, the Akefema secretary-general.

In addition to the wheat and maize by-products, processors also facing a shortage of other key products such as the sunflower and cotton seed cake and soya.

Kenya relies on imports of sunflower seed cake from Tanzania while soya is imported from Uganda, Malawi and Zambia.

However, Zambia has dealt the feeds industry a blow after suspending exports of soya bean meal and sunflower seed cake.

“Since this [Zambia] is one of the main source markets for Kenya, the price of little available soya has gone up by 20 percent resulting in a sharp rise in the cost of producing feeds,” said Mr Kinoti.

The price of soya has therefore doubled from Sh65 to Sh130 per kilogramme, while that of sunflower meal has gone up from Sh25 to Sh35.

Mr Kinoti added that there is no indication that this situation will improve in the next two months.

Due to the higher component prices, the price of a 70- kilogramme bag of dairy meal has gone up to Sh3,400 from Sh2,500 a year ago, chick marsh is retailing at Sh4,200 from Sh3,250 while layers marsh is now selling at Sh3,800 from Sh3,100.