Dar es Salaam. High taxes charged on grains hinders smooth crop trade among African countries, it has been revealed.

Eastern African Grain Council (EAGC) board of directors chairman Eugene Rwibasira told The Citizen recently as he made this revelation.

“We recently bought tonnes of maize from farmers in Zambia at the cost of $1,500, but surprisingly, we were charged three times the actual buying price of the commodity for it to be exported elsewhere,” he said.

Mr Rwibasira added that since the establishment of EAGC in 2006, the main barrier on grains trade has been import taxes within member states. The main objectives of the EAGC include providing market information, intelligence to support trade to buy and sell grains.

He made the revelations on the sidelines of the EAGC annual meeting, which was later followed by the launch of 2018/22 strategic plan to enable boost trade structure, policy advocacy and institutional strengthening.

Mr Rwibasira said the Democratic Republic of Congo and Ethiopia were prospective members of the council for this year.

“We have also received requests from Mozambique, Madagascar, Mauritius and Sudan. They all want to join us,” he said.

EAGC chief executive officer Gerald Masila said the current plan was to establish the EAGC Investment Company that will consolidate services to be offered on commercial basis.

He said that the board was currently developing other investments to be offered commercially on the fee basis, in partnership with institutional experts who have a share in the vision and aspirations of the EAGC in the region.

“Some of the investments in the pipeline are the EAGC GSOKO Online Grain Trading System and EAGC Trade Facilitation (TRAFA) fund both aimed at facilitating grains trade.

Source: The Citizen