Group photo of participants to the meeting

Today, Rwanda hosts regional meeting for consideration of public review feedback on the Draft EAC Staple Foods Standards. The five day meeting brings together participants from EAC Secretariat, representative of the African Organisation for Standardization (ARSO), National Standards Bodies from the EAC member states, East African Grain Council, partners in support of agriculture sector and stakeholders in the cereals and cereal products value chain.

At the occasion of official opening of the meeting, Mr. Antoine Mukunzi, National Quality Testing Laboratories Division Manager welcomed participants to Rwanda and indicated: He stressed that harmonization of standards and better collaboration between countries is essential to boosting intra-Africa trade.
Antoine Mukunzi-RSB/NQTLD Manager addressing the media

“Rwanda gives importance to standardization in the food sector due to not only its relevance in consumer safety but also the food sector as a business opportunity. Consumers deserve quality and safe food; and harmonization of standards and better collaboration between countries is essential to boosting intra-Africa trade. Rwanda Standards Board has started a new standards setting mechanism based on standards research to come up with standards that meet customer requirements and eliminate Technical Barriers to Trade”.

Speaking about the rationale of the meeting, Gerald Makau Masila the Executive Director of Eastern Africa Grain Council informed: “Technical Barriers to Trade, technical regulations and conformity assessment measures are key prominent trade barriers to be eliminated in order to promote free trade of staple foods in eastern Africa. Safe food to consume is priority of EAC and EAGC and harmonizing standards allows having an agreed position on the standards”.
  Gerald Makau Masila, Executive Director-EAGC addressing the media

ARSO appreciates EAC member states efforts to harmonize food standards as it is also an opportunity for economic growth: “ARSO commends efforts to develop and harmonize standards to ensure people on the continent are provided with safe food. Harmonization of standards is one of the ways to bring together 55 single African economies and come up with a single and coherent economy.” Reiterated Paul Wanakira, ARSO representative at the meeting.

The East African Community (EAC) gazetted the new EAS 2013 harmonized Staple Foods Standards on December 6, 2013.This was a critical step taken by the EAC, geared towards addressing one of the  the key  obstacles to formal structured trading systems that depend on consistency and standardization of products quality. Implementation of the approved standards commenced, in earnest,  throughout the EAC Partner States through collaborative efforts of the  respective National Standards Bureaus (NSBs) and the grain industry stakeholder  institutions.

In the course of implementation of the standards, a few challenges were encountered, prompting stakeholders to call for the review of the Standards. Subsequent consultations with stakeholders under the auspices of the EAC recommended, among others, that East African Grain Council (EAGC) to conduct a Gap Analysis Study on the implementation of the EAS 2013 as part of evidence gathering to support the call for review of the Standards. The Study also intended to provide informed recommendations on the next steps to address the issues raised by stakeholders and to facilitate the smooth adoption and implementation of grain standards and grades in the region. The study also provided an assessment of the capacity of grain laboratories to implement the Standards and the enforcement of the Standards in cross-border trade.

During the public review of the Standards, a significant volume of feedback has been received in all EAC Partner States. The meeting opened in Kigali will assess and consider the feedback and in the end will come up with Final Draft Standards to be tabled before the EAC Technical Management Committee for adoption.