Kenya is facing a looming wheat shortage after a deal brokered between President William Ruto and Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed to import cheaper wheat from Addis Ababa suffered a setback.
Ethiopian authorities barred local traders from direct purchases by listing the grain on the commodity exchange.
Export analysts argued that direct sales would have been cheaper than buying wheat from the exchange, a closed market where only registered local members are allowed to trade.
“Having the wheat exported to Kenya through the exchange will make it more expensive by the time it lands here,” Gerald Masila, executive director of Eastern Africa Grain Council, stated.
The Eastern African country is the number one wheat producer in the region. The country recorded a bumper harvest in 2022 and expects a surplus of more than a million tonnes before the year ends.
However, Kenyan farmers can learn from a Senegalese baker who capitalised on the shortage of wheat in her country to produce bread with locally available cereals.
While speaking to the BBC, Isseu Diop Sakho, a bread baker in Senegal, indicated that the war in Ukraine prompted her to rethink her strategies and influence eating habits in the West African country.
"The main issue that we have is that wheat cannot grow in Senegal," Sakho told the BBC, explaining that the country neither has the soil nor the weather conditions required.
With most of Senegal's wheat imports coming from Russia, Sakho had to innovate models of sustaining her business as the row in Ukraine affected imports.
Instead of using wheat in their dough, Sakho's bread factory is experimenting with locally produced cereals, including black-eyed beans, millet and sorghum, to produce bread for their customers.
She resorted to using black-eyed beans, millet and sorghum, products Kenya also produces.
This offers an important lesson to Kenyan farmers, especially after the deal with the Ethiopian government hit a snag.
