The east African Community (EAC) will harmonise the standards of oil seeds and edible oil made within the region to improve the quality of foodstuffs in the trade bloc, officials have said.“We need to harmonise the processing of edible oil to ensure quality and improve the product’s competitiveness,” Athanasie Mukeshiyaremye, the director of standards unit at RBS, said in an interview on Tuesday.“Once these products are trusted, they can be exported to the region and on the global market.”Recently, the EAC technical committee met in Bujumbura, Burundi to devise ways on how to adopt uniform standards on making edible oil, a key ingredient in the daily diet of many people across the region. The meeting was organised by TradeMark East Africa. The edible fat and oil sector is part of the larger food and beverage industry that commands a $2b East African regional market value, TradeMark East Africa data indicate. According to the Rwanda Bureau of Standards, there is high demand for edible oil and fat but production is low. Peter Mutua, the principal standards officer at the Kenya Bureau of Standards, said having uniform standards would address barriers affecting the sector in the region.“The adoption of regional edible fat and oil standards will also ease access to international markets for EAC-based edible oil refineries. Remember, the EAC standards are based on the Codex Alimentarius Standards. These are international food standards recognised by the World Trade Organisation,” Mutua said.“Standards harmonisation is a win-win situation for EAC consumers as they will also benefit from edible oil imports from countries whose product specifications are based on the Codex Alimentarius Standards.”Lats year, similar initiatives resulted in the harmonisation of about $150m worth of products from the list of most-traded goods in the East African Community. They included construction materials like steel, chemicals, alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages as well as cosmetics.
