Maize Prices Down, Will The Consumers Get To Smile?

Maize prices have slightly decreased on the back of increased supply by farmers and traders, coming as a relief to consumers who have been grappling with the high cost of the commodity.

A 90-kilogram bag of the grain is now selling at 4,800 shillings at the farm gate down from 5,000 shillings last month. Processors are at the same time paying 5,000 shillings at the factory gate, down from 5,300 shillings last month, with the price fall expected to ease pressure on maize flour prices.

The price fall comes as the country expects to import duty-free maize from February this year. The government in December last year said it will allow millers and traders to import a total of 900,000 metric tonnes of duty-free maize from February to August 2023 to bridge the local deficit.

‘’The government plans to allow maize imports from the region. The ministry has prepared a Cabinet memo to import maize duty-free to evade hunger,” Mr. Linturi said in a statement read on the floor of Parliament by Majority leader Kimani Ichung’wah.

The State will allow traders to ship in the commodity from outside the regional market duty-free between February and August just two months before the onset of the main harvest in October.

Millers have however expressed fears that it might be hard to find sufficient stocks in the world market as there isn’t enough white maize globally as most of the produce in the would-be source market is genetically modified.

The imports will help ease the ever-escalating price of maize occasioned by persistent drought in the country. The devastating effects of drought saw Kenya’s maize imports in the nine months to September 2022  more than double to 5.7 million (90-kg) bags compared to the 2.3 Million bags imported in a corresponding period in 2021.

This was the highest maize import since 2017. The country is experiencing the worst drought in 40 years which has led to low maize Production given that more than 80 percent of Kenya’s maize is rainfed.

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