THE Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) plans to engage the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the Zambian government to discuss and look at ways to unlock barriers that restrict Kenya from exporting milk and milk products to Zambia due to a conflict over standards.
Zambia has rejected Kenya’s milk, saying it has a high level of bacteria that is beyond the country’s required standards, which allows total bacteria count (TBC) of 200 000 while Kenya follows the international benchmark of 1 million TBC.
COMESA director for trade customs and monetary affairs Francis Mangeni said experts from FAO the ministries of Commerce, Trade and Industry, and also Agriculture are expected to meet to sort out the issue.
Dr Mangeni told journalists on Friday during the fourth CCC regional sensitisation workshop for business reporters’on provisions and application on COMESA competition regulations and trade developments within the common market.
“It’s about time the issue was finally resolved as it has been on-going for the past 13 years.
“Out of 200 bilateral conflicts under the Free Trade Area agreement that COMESA has been handling, only four have not been resolved of which the Kenya and Zambia issue is among them. As COMESA, we plan to engage international experts to meet with the Zambian government to find possible ways to resolve the conflicts that blocked Kenya export milk and milk products to Zambia,” he said.
Dr Mangeni urged the Zambian government to request for a safeguard if the country wants to protect the local milk industry.
Under Article 61 of the COMESA Treaty, safeguard measures can be taken for domestic industries to protect them against international competition until they become mature and stable.
He said there is also need to extremely assess some of the bilateral agreements before putting them into effect, as they are a threat to local industries, thereby affecting revenue collection and job creation.
“If Zambia does not want to import milk and milk products from Kenya, the Zambian government is free to ask for a safeguard from COMESA to protect and limit the importation of the commodities to ensure that the local milk producers and suppliers are not suppressed,” Dr Mangeni said.
I have been to zambia in the last few years not that I liked it there a time all I don’t get why we have the audacity to refuse milk from Kenya.
Kenya is better at everything than zambia.
Recede the silly decision now
Thanks
Bb2014,2016
Absolutely no need to import milk that can’t even meet our basic standards. Besides our local industry should be protected…..Zambia first in all trade deals please
Kenya should adhere to the rules which the local farmers are subjected to. I have no issues for Zambia to import milk but a standard is a must for every exporter to meet. Send a chicken to USA and see what they will advise you.
Kenya is not better than Zambia. In fact it has also many problems politically, economically, socially etc.
Kenya is not better than Zambia. In fact it has also many problems politically, economically, socially etc.
Mshota, you say you have been to Zambia…? That means you don’t care about Zambia because whatever might happen to those living in Zambia won’t affect you – right? For us, it shall always be Zambia first. The international community can setup their own standards but Zambia has its own standards and the international community must respect that too.
There is no issue here. All Kenya needs to do is skim the milk to the standard of the importing country. China does that. It exports as per continents demanded standard. Junk to Africa and high grade products to Europe and America according to consumers’ wishes.
@Mushota your knowledge of the dairy industry is very limited, so I will not tout your lack of experience and/or youth! You must understand beef /dairy /fruit and veg industries are very sensitive to diseases! Any slight variation will render a strategic fall. Your question should be why can’t we export to Kenya?
good move Government…how can we be importanting products that ZAMBIANS also have, it’s time ZAMBIA bought from Zambia and ripped it’s harvest, go should local farmers producing milk feel knowing our Government is busy creating market for products we also have, cut off tomatoes, cut off cheese, cut off milk, cut off bread and mealie meali, we have them here, also, I approve this message
#HHLIES
Yes our local industry should be protected. Don’t we have our own milk here? If we can consume our own meat here why can’t we also consume our milk?
Please please it does not matter if Kenya is better than us. We have to protected our milk industry.
I think the Zambian Government especially the Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock is doing a good job to protect the lives of people in this HIV era. If the TBC is 1 million it means people with the low immunity system can easily be infected because those bacteria may cause an opportunistic infection in people with CD4 below 250. Furthermore, the bacteria we talking about here would be pathogenic E.coli or Pseudomonas spp or Streptococcus pyogenes. These are dangerous bacteria and may cause GIT or RTI infection respectively which would be difficult to treat. I urge the Zambian government to maintain the standards. If Kenya wants the the milk to be in Zambia she should process the milk to suit the Zambian conditions or requirements. COMESA do not impose, let the Kenyan farmers follow what…
I think the Zambian Government especially the Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock is doing a good job to protect the lives of people in this HIV era. If the TBC is 1 million it means people with the low immunity system can easily be infected because those bacteria may cause an opportunistic infection in people with CD4 >250. Furthermore, the bacteria we talking about here would be pathogenic E.coli or Pseudomonas spp or Streptococcus pyogenes. These are dangerous bacteria and may cause GIT or RTI infection respectively which would be difficult to treat. I urge the Zambian government to maintain the standards. If Kenya wants the the milk to be in Zambia she should process the milk to suit the Zambian conditions or requirements. COMESA do not impose, let the Kenyan farmers follow the…
What has FAO got to do with trade between two countries? If Kenya wants to export to Zambia, let her meet Zambian standards not Kenyan standards.
So milk contains bacterias. I didn’t know. Can someone educate me here please
Some of us went to secondary schools where biology was one of the subjects. We learnt all this stuff about bacteria then. Unfortunately our education standards now are a problem to export to other countries.
Almost all food stuffs contain bacteria – it depends on the type and how high the content is. Our digestive sytem is naturally able to filter even high quantities of bacteria in cheese, yoghurt and mushrooms for example, but it can be toxic when the levels get extremely high.
Currently we don’t have deficit in milk supply and therefore Kenya must compete. …as advised by many here. ..bring their product to the required standard.
Kenya cannot meet our standards our standards are higher. Honestly can you compare Kenya to south Africa sure…… southern Africa is the cream of the African continent if you disagree piss off.
This is the result of sending kaponyas to sign trade agreements , regional countries were silivating knowing the ignorant kaponyas will sign any trade agreement turning Zambia into a giant supermarket for their goods….
So Mwanawasa was a kaponya by your thinking? These agreements were done during great Levy’s time.
While you’re talking about Kenya exporting milk to Zambia, could you also discuss Zambia exporting sugar to Kenya?! Zambia needs to benefit from Comesa membership as well, it can’t be a one way street of exports into Zambia. Kenya has had safeguard protection from sugar from other Comesa countries for almost 20 years now, I think its about time this was removed. Let each country exploit its competitive advantage, this is a free trade area after all!
Trade is not like that. Say your neighbour buys eggs from you does it mean you’re obliged to buy rotten beef from him.
And Zambia needs Kenyan milk because????? Come on lets be serious our local industry needs to grow.Its bad enough that South african shops and products are all over Zambia and not a single Zambian product in South africa despite Emmanual Mwamba’s many selfies with Boers.(I digress!)
I don’t see anything wrong with Zambia demanding that Kenya removes from their milk the excess bacteria before exporting.why is their milk so infested with such high levels of bacteria?is it because it is produced under very unhygienic conditions!?
Buying is a matter of choice and it is on ones discretion, therefore it must not become an issue in this regard.
free trade doesnt mean anything is allowed. why should we bend our standards to kenya. they need the market so they should bring milk the way we want it. much as kenyan economy is robust than ours they are not better in certain things than us. you can mess with standards.
Mshota, you say you have been to Zambia and you have a PHD. Boss it reclind and NOT Recede . Fake papers my sister please set standards for yourself boss.
Zambia is already flooded with Blue Band Margarine from Kenya…
Does Zambia need milk to flood its markets too. And what is Zambia exporting to Kenya…
Can we export ka hh…..for free
Have you noticed that there is no imported sugar on the Zambian market? It is because of standards. Zambian sugar is, by law, fortified with vitamin ‘A’. So if Kenyan milk is below the Zambian standard, like sugar from other countries, please keep it away from us. Nga fyatulwalika bakalabepesha poor garbage collection.
Sugar is fortified in Zambia because of malnourished population
May be this is a lesson to Odinga, the Brenthurst Foundation agent in East Africa, who has openly cast his hatred of the Zambian Govt. This applies to DA in South Africa – a racist party that is blind to links between economics and politics. As of now, I WILL NOT accept a cup of coffee/tea offered by the Brenthurst Foundation Mills in South Africa. We have to watch the events up to end of October 2017 to decide as to whom Zambia can engage to resolve free trade with Kenya.
This is a reciprocal measure the Zambian government has taken as Kenya also restricts the exportation of Sugar to that country claiming that their industry is non-competitive (tit for tat). So our Ministry is doing a great job on this to put the Kenyans in their space by using standards. High time we protected our private sector. COMESA is being clever in saying that Zambia can use safeguards but these measures apply to all. but what we dont want is Kenyan milk.