AKEFEMA is taking several steps in hopes of alleviating shortages and high costs of feed ingredients
The Association of Kenya Feed Manufacturers (AKEFEMA), is deeply concerned about the shortage of raw materials to manufacture animal feed, and is taking action in an attempt to address the situation.
According to a Farmers Review Africa report, AKEFEMA is particularly concerned about the export of raw materials to Middle Eastern countries, which are offering premium prices for these raw materials. This is happening as Kenyan feed manufacturers are struggling with the shortage and subsequent high costs of certain raw materials.
“We have established that milling byproducts are being exported to Saudi Arabia and the UAE who are offering particularly lucrative prices, which our processors cannot compete with,” stated AKEFEMA Secretary-General Martin Kinoti.
AKEFEMA, on its website, said that as a result of such shortages, it is taking the following steps:
- Aggressively engaging the State Department of Livestock, as well as other agencies and stakeholders, in order to help address the shortage, including but not limited to taxation support and lifting the ban on importation of genetically modified soybean meal and corn.
- Pursuing suppliers and millers to make use of alternative ingredients such as poultry meal, fish meal and corn gluten, “in order to bridge the gap occasioned by the shortage of soya.”
- Resolving to “vigorously, structurally and constructively engage the media to inform and update the public and the farmers on the solutions being examined to address the feed ingredient shortage.
Founded by a small number of feed millers in 2003, AKEFEMA was registered a year later as an official representative of all registered feed manufacturers and associated businesses in Kenya. Its mission is “To promote cooperation, coordination and continuous improvement of products, manufacture quality and/or service delivery in all institutions and businesses involved in the livestock feedstuff industry.”
It’s vision is “a well-coordinated and efficiently operating livestock feedstuff industry throughout Kenya.”
