COMESA business council to train local agro-food suppliers on global food standards

CBC's CEO Ms. Sandra Uwera giving her remarks during the training in Rwanda on 17th February 2016

NAIROBI, KENYA: The COMESA Business Council (CBC) in partnership with the Kenya Association of Manufacturers will hold a four day training workshop for agro-food suppliers in Nairobi this week.

The training is part of CBC’s ongoing Local Sourcing for Partnerships (LSP) project and viewed as a strategic step towards building sustainable sourcing partnerships between SMEs and corporate companies.

The project is supported by the Investment Climate Facility for Africa (ICF), USAID-IPAA, in collaboration with the public and private sector bodies.

CBC’s Chief Executive Officer Ms. Sandra Uwera says that the project aims at training local suppliers in global food standards so that they can be integrated into supply chains of the hospitality and food and beverages industries.

The project is being implemented in six countries namely Zambia, Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia and Malawi.

Uwera said, “Most companies often source outside the region due to the limitations of the local market in meeting the basic requirements of time, cost, quality and consistency in supply. This training will address core challenges faced by enterprises while trading in the market.”

The challenges include the failure by local suppliers to meet the international standards requirements, inconsistent supply from local suppliers, limited credible information on local suppliers, as well as the existing assumption that local sourcing partnerships are difficult and unstable process.

Commenting on the initiative, KAM Chief Executive Officer Mrs. Phyllis Wakiaga said, “As an emerging economy, it is paramount that we grow our local industries to improve quality control, competitiveness and consistency of supply of our products into regional and international markets in order to achieve Kenya’s Vision 2030.”

The training is timely for Kenya especially after the recent unveiling of the Kenya’s Industrial Transformation Programme (KITP). The plan looks beyond import-substitution and prioritizes leveraging on local industries to grow the manufacturing sector to levels above 15percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) from a static 11 percent over the past decade.

Under the KITP programme Kenya Government plans to offer incentives for local value addition for multinational companies to consider creating opportunities for SME’s by investing in group packaging. This is expected to attract Sh20-24 billion (US$ 200-240 million) in value addition and promote the “Made in Kenya” brand.