Kenya likely to face elevated food prices amid Ukraine war

The United Nations is warning Kenya to brace for higher food prices because of the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict.

The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, UNCTAD says a new round of inflation will hit Kenya due to pressures from oil, wheat, and fertilizer shortages. UNCTAD is urging the country to diversify its imports markets to avoid the impending implosion in food prices.

Already the cost of the three items have gone up in the last month since the Moscow-Kyiv crisis began

According to statistics from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics Kenya imported 1.9 million metric tonnes of wheat in 2020, where Russia supplied 31% of the total wheat imports.

Ukraine is also a major exporter of fertilizer to Kenya, with Kyiv exporting more than 40 percent of Kenya’s annual fertilizer demand.

The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development UNCTADis asking Kenya to source alternative wheat sources to bridge the looming shortages.

The UN body says between 2018–2020, Africa imported 32% of its wheat worth $3.7 billion from Russia, while Ukraine exported wheat worth 1.4 billion dollars in the same period.

The UNCTAD further says African countries will find it hard to replace imports from Russia and Ukraine through Intra African trade, as the regional supply of wheat is comparatively small, and many parts of the continent lack efficient transport infrastructures and storage capacity.

Russia and Ukraine also account for 53% of the share of global trade in sunflower oil and seeds, with Kenyans forced to grapple with high edible oil prices since the conflict started more than three weeks ago.

Early this year the government had allowed animal feeds millers to import non-GMO yellow maize from Ukraine in a bid to stabilize feeds prices.

However, since the war started the import process was affected and stopped forcing millers to source for alternative markets to source their raw materials.

This has opened another front of higher animal feed prices, which is expected to affect the cost of milk, eggs, and other animal products