Maize flour price to drop this week, PS

By Robert Mutasi 

The Principal Secretary (PS) in the Ministry of Agriculture, Kello Harsama, has assured Kenyans that the price of maize flour may start to drop to around Sh175 per two-kilogram packet of maize flour.

He said this is because the country has started receiving maize from Tanzania and Uganda.

"We expect a significant reduction in the price of maize this week and also a decrease in the price of flour. The price of maize is slowly dropping from Sh6,000 per 90-kilogram bag last week to about Sh5,000 this week. This reduction will soon be reflected in the price of flour on the shelves. Some millers have reduced the price of flour from Sh220 to Sh175,” he said.

The PS spoke during the launch of the media outlets of the Africa Agricultural Technology Conference in Nairobi.

Harsama said millers will start grinding maize from local farmers in the next month as the country expects a large harvest of about 44 million bags of maize.

"This is enough to feed our country and reduce any kind of importation," he added.

In February 2023, the government allowed traders to import maize and rice from abroad to avoid a drought problem.

The government announced the importation of more than 1.4 million tons of maize in the government newspaper but was able to obtain less than 500 tons of maize due to a shortage caused by the effects of climate change that affected the entire world.

"When we asked our traders to import maize from our neighbors, they had a lot of trouble getting it. Countries that produce native maize had a drought problem like Kenya and the only country that had enough maize at that time was South Africa," Harsama said.

Many countries including South Sudan, Rwanda, Angola, Namibia, and other countries that did not have enough maize were struggling to find maize in South Africa.

"So we had a challenge getting maize from these countries. There was also a problem with the dollar which had risen and many of our traders were having problems because the dollar activity was not good for them. That's why we had a small supply of maize," he said.

But the PS assured that the country expects sufficient harvest for the long rainy season.

The PS said the Ministry of Agriculture is striving to ensure a reduction in losses after harvesting due to humid weather and poor storage.