Maize Program > Highlights
2nd Annual Grain Trade Summit Held
“Structured Trade: Staying the Course”
The Eastern Africa Grain Council (EAGC) recently hosted a very successful
and timely 2nd Grain Trade Summit from 18th-19th April 2007 at the
Nairobi Intercontinental hotel. This year’s summit attracted
over 250 participants from all over the region as well as several
prominent international speakers including Wayne Bacon, the former
president of the Grain and Feed Trade Association (GAFTA), a trade
organization that represents much of the international grain industry
worldwide. GAFTA has developed contracts and arbitration mechanisms
that are used by most international grain trading companies. Mr.
Bacon’s insights were particularly appreciated by the participants
as GAFTA has over 175 year’s experience in supporting grain
trade and its members. Another important international guest, Mr.
Lamon Rutten of Multi-commodity Exchange of India, provided an overview
of how commodity exchanges work in India and the potential for these
trading mechanisms to work in Africa.
The Grain Summit received strong local and regional industry support
with over 20 companies providing over $50,000 in corporate sponsorships
for the summit. RATES was one of the key implementing sponsors of
the summit along with COMESA and the EAC. This 2nd summit was a follow-up
to the 1st East African Grain Summit held in 2005 and focused on
the region's progress to date on developing a more structured trading
system.
The program was literally “jam packed” with regional
speakers focusing on topics including commodity risk management and
trade finance, commodity exchanges, warehouse receipt schemes, and
how to integrate food aid into commercial grain trade. Case studies
were provided on recent efforts to create commodity exchanges in
Malawi and Ethiopia. Overall, the sessions generated a great deal
of discussion and participants were able to network and share success
stories and lessons learned. The key message taken from the summit
is that the region needs to stay the course on further developing
commercial grain trade and opening borders to trade. This cannot
be done however at the expense of small holder producers. It is clear
that initiatives need to be developed that provide a means for these
players to participate in commercial trade by organizing and collectively
storing their grain in certified warehouses.
With RATES and USAID Kenya’s Kenya Maize Development Project
(KMDP) support, EAGC is now a fully registered organization and has
a membership comprising key players in the grain industry in the
region including producers, traders, processors and service providers
such as banks, insurance companies and the regional equity markets.
For more information on EAGC log on to www.eagc.org.
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