Eastern Africa is struggling to meet the region's increasing demand for rice as policy constraints, an unstructured market regime and changes in global rice trade magazines hamper fast-tracking of production, processing and marketing programmes by countries in this sub Saharan market. Although the Eastern Africa GrainCouncil (EAGC) says production has been increasing albeit slowly, the rice sub sector in the region does not "meet market demand partly due to inadequate market linkages from surplus to deficit regions and unfavourable trade policy."Eastern Africa has the potential to expand rice production and trade but because of the "prevailing rice market challenges including informal, insufficient and unstructured markets coupled with policy constraints and changes in global rice trade dynamics have negatively impacted the rice trade" according to Jacinta Mwau of EAGC.
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