smugglers.
for copper, its top export.
Months after harvests across the
region plummeted by a third, the illicit
trade is stoking calls for tougher export
restrictions in places like Zambia.
"Foreigners are buying up all the
available maize at inflated prices, leaving
local millers with virtually no stock,"
says Allan Sakala, the head of a millers’
organisation in Zambia that recently
raised its prices by 25%. "If exports are
not banned, consumers should brace for
even higher prices."
Along Uganda’s southern border with
Tanzania, rickety trucks carry 50kg bags
of maize and beans across several
unmanned crossings, traders said. The
cargo sits in secret caches near the
border town of Mutukula before being
loaded onto larger trucks for the trip
through Kampala to Kenya, South Sudan
and Ethiopia. Ali Mukalazi, another
smuggler in Kampala, said some of the
maize is graded and repackaged to
look like a legal Uganda-grown export.
Mr Mukalazi said he sometimes bribes
customs officials "to keep out of trouble".
He said those payments hardly eat
into his profit. "The margins are quite
handsome. I am sure many people
would love to be in my position."
President Edgar Lungu in November
accused millers of exploiting consumers
and said he might freeze grain prices,
as his government struggles to stabilise
a runaway currency and economy
suffering from the global drop in prices
Kelloggs spends $450 million in Africa
K
ellogg Co is setting up a joint venture
with the African arm of Singapore's Tolaram
Group to bolster its breakfast and snack food
offerings in West Africa.
Kellogg will also pay $450 million for a 50
percent stake in Lagos, Nigeria-based Multipro,
a food sales and distribution company owned
by Tolaram, with an option to buy a stake in
Tolaram's African unit. Tolaram Africa Foods
owns 49 percent of Dufil Prima Foods Plc, the
maker of Indomie noodles, Minimie snacks,
Power oil and Power pasta.
Kellogg said it intends to develop snacks and
breakfast items for the West African market
46
FARMERS GAZETTE
November 2015
through the joint venture. The world's largest
cereal maker will also get access to Multipro's
distribution network in Nigeria and Ghana, and
potentially in the Democratic Republic of Congo,
Ivory Coast, Cameroon and Ethiopia.
U.S. packaged food companies are increasingly
looking to expand in emerging markets as
customers in their biggest markets such as
North America increasingly prefer cheaper
private-label foods and cook more at home.
Kellogg acquired a majority stake in Egyptian
biscuit maker Bisco Misr for $125 million in
January this year. Kellogg said it expects costs
associated with the Tolaram deal to lower thirdquarter earnings by 1 cent per share.