Middlemen raise maize prices by 50 pc following NCPB buying exercise
Maize farmers dry their grain outside Kipchoge Stadium in Eldoret. A 90 kilogramme bag is now selling at Sh1,800, up from the initial Sh1,200 that brokers have been offering farmers in recent days. FILE PHOTO | JARED NYATAYA |
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Millers too have increased the price from Sh2,200 per 90 kilogramme bag to Sh2,400 while the cereals board is buying at Sh2,300 for the same quantity.
NCPB normally acts as a benchmark in determining the price at which other stakeholders would buy the staple at.
Middlemen have increased maize prices by 50 per cent in the country’s grain basket of North Rift, coming barely a month after the government opened the National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB).
A 90 kilogramme bag is now selling at Sh1,800, up from the initial Sh1,200 that brokers had been offering farmers in recent days.
Millers too have increased the price from Sh2,200 per 90 kilogramme bag to Sh2,400 while the cereals board is buying it at Sh2,300 for the same quantity. NCPB normally acts as a benchmark in determining the price at which other stakeholders would buy the staple at.
The traders have had to increase their buying price to nearly match what other players are paying per bag in order to attract stocks from farmers who would otherwise sell their grain to millers or NCPB.
The prices had fallen by more than a half as the government delayed issuing the price at which the NCPB, which buys maize on behalf of the government, would purchase the produce at. In May, a bag of maize was retailing at Sh3,800 but it dropped to a low of Sh1,200 in December as a result of increased supply of the grain in the market following the onset of harvesting in Uasin Gishu and Trans-Nzoia Counties.
Chief executive officer of the cereal growers association Anthony Kioko says there has been improvement in the past days since the government released the buying price.
“The prices have started going up and the middle-men are offering about Sh1,800 per bag since NCPB started the buying exercise,” said Mr Kioko.
Mr Kioko, however, noted that the prices might fail in future if the fund that the government allocated to the grain handler is exhausted.
“There is a high likelihood of the prices dropping once the NCPB exhausts the money that it was given by the state,” he said.
NCPB was given Sh2.7 billion to buy maize meant for the strategic grain reserve. The money can only buy about a million bags of 90 kilogrammes.
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