The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) has launched a roadmap to address bottlenecks around the smooth inter-regional flow of maize caused by differences in standards and regulations across the region.
Known as the Comesa Mutual Recognition Framework (C-MRF), the objective of the roadmap is to provide equal phyto-sanitary standards and recognition of certificates of analysis issued by the participating countries.
This will eliminate the need for multiple testing by both the exporting and importing countries.
C-MRF was developed by the Comesa Secretariat in partnership with the governments of Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe – all of whom conduct significant maize trade in the region.
At the launch, Thierry Mutombo Kalonji, the Comesa Secretariat director for agriculture and industry, said the lack of mutual recognition of technical standards and conformity assessment (testing and certification) was a persistent non-tariff barrier.
"Without mutual recognition of standards and certificates of analysis, regulatory barriers persist, causing an unpredictable regulatory environment that comes at a high cost to traders and contributes to the growing informal trade, now estimated at over 80% in some countries,” he said.
