By HELEN ZULU –
THE Kenyan Ministry of Industry and Cooperatives says lack of Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) import and export standard for products has led to the country’s failure to access the Zambian market.
Ministry of Industry and Cooperatives principal secretary  Chris Kiptoo said Kenya’s milk and palm oil products could currently not access the Zambian market owing to conflicts on standards.
Dr Kiptoo said with regard to milk, Zambia’s standard allowed total bacteria count (TBC) of 200,000 while Kenya followed the international benchmark of one million.
This is according to a statement released in Lusaka at the weekend.
“We need a COMESA standard so that we can start trading, the 13 year stalemate has been due to the absence of a COMESA standard that would guide the import and export of the various commodities across borders in the region.
“A COMESA standard would help producers to come up with uniform products that can sell across the borders in the region and beyond, the gap had left member states to use their own standards which were in inconsistent with their trading partner states,” Dr Kiptoo said.
A Kenyan Government delegation led by Dr Kiptoo was in Zambia for three days last week for bilateral talks with Zambian counterparts with the aim of unlocking a long standing non-tariff barrier affecting trade in milk and palm oil.
Dr  Kiptoo said there was need for COMESA member states to trade amongst each other more,  than with other countries and continents, as this would help boost the productive capacity of the various industries.
Acting secretary general  Kipyego Cheluget urged the two states to strive and resolve the matter within this year so that trade could start between the two countries in the named commodities.