Johannesburg - Kenya has approved the import of 5 million
bags, or 450 000 metric tons, of yellow corn from Ukraine as a drought slashes
its own output of the grain.
The imports, the first of the variety since 2011, will be
distributed to animal feed millers, said Johnson Irungu, Director of Crops at
the Ministry of Agriculture, in an interview on Thursday.
Arrival of the corn from Ukraine will free up more
locally grown white corn for human consumption, said Jacques Pienaar, an
analyst at South Africa’s Commodity Insight Africa.
Read also: SA's maize crop shrinks
Corn yields in Kenya this season have halved because of
the drought, the National Drought Management Authority said on February 6.
The imports will cost $260 to $270 a ton if landed at the
port of Mombasa, according to Pienaar. That would mean a total cost of about
$119 million.
“It will basically help” ease pressure on white corn
supplies, Pienaar said by phone. “It will definitely make a dent.”