AFRICA: Tanzania blocks Kenyan goods in dispute over quality mark

Thousands of Kenyan processed goods valued at Sh30 billion could be blocked from Tanzania, which is demanding the Diamond Mark of Quality in favour of the standardisation symbol that most exporters use.

Only 200 of the nearly 10,000 products that Kenyan manufacturers sell across the southern border bear the diamond mark, which Tanzania says will be required of goods from Kenya starting in March.

The Tanzania Bureau of Standards said the standardisation mark does not capture enough quality benchmarks.

“The Tanzanian officials are rooting for the diamond mark, which is more vigorous as it captures more quality measurements as opposed to the standardisation mark,” said the director of economic affairs at the ministry of East African Community, Mr Richard Sindiga.

That leaves more than 9,000 items at the risk of being banned from Kenya’s largest regional market as Kenya Bureau of Standards and the Tanzania Bureau of Standards haggle over the accepted quality emblem for exports between the two countries.

Kenya’s exports to Tanzania include cement, maize and wheat flour, margarine, cooking oil, detergents, sugar, cement and others.

Key exporters into the country such as Bidco, Unilever, Unga, Mumias Sugar, East African Portland Cement among others have products that do not have the diamond mark.

Officials at the Kenya Bureau of Standards however disagreed with the demands from Tanzania, saying the standardisation mark was more widely recognised across the region.

Difficult

“The diamond mark of quality is a very high benchmark and the rest of the region cannot match it. The standardisation mark is what we have been using and remains in use,” said the Kebs director for quality assurance and inspection, Mr John Abongo.

He added that the diamond mark was only being used locally, adding that they had written to the Tanzania on the matter.

The Kenya Private Sector Alliance (Kepsa) said the mark would add to the expense of most small and medium enterprises, making it difficult for their products to move in the Tanzania market.

“This will make a number of our manufactured goods unable to compete in the Tanzanian market,” said the chairman Patrick Obath.

Goods manufactured in Kenya are charged Sh55,000 each per year for the diamond mark while imported ones pay Sh200,000 to Kebs.

In contrast, the standardisation mark costs Sh20,000 per product per year.