The National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) has failed to attract more maize supplies from farmers despite increasing the price to entice growers.
NCPB managing director Joseph Kimote says the firm has only managed to buy 80,000 bags as farmers still hold onto their crop in anticipation of an increase in price in the coming months.
This promises to subject consumers to high flour prices for a longer time.
The National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) has failed to attract more maize supplies from farmers despite increasing the price to entice growers.
NCPB managing director Joseph Kimote says the firm has only managed to buy 80,000 bags as farmers still hold onto their crop in anticipation of an increase in price in the coming months.
This promises to subject consumers to high flour prices for a longer time.
The board was targeting to buy at least over a million bag bags from last year’s main crop season.
Largescale farmers are still hoarding their crop, tightening the supplies in the market and keeping the price of flour high with a two-kilogramme packet now hitting a high of Sh133 from Sh108 in December.
The board had in December increased the price of a 90-kilogramme bag of maize from Sh2,700 to Sh3,000.
“The supplies have been so tight that we are hardly getting the required number of bags as largescale farmers are still hoarding their maize,” said Mr Kimote.
NCPB is a big player in the market and mainly relies on largescale farmers who can deliver up to 5,000 bags at ago, but most, it appears, have chosen to wait for the price to increase further.
The board has been facing a stiff challenge from millers and traders with the scarcity of supply in the market pushing up the cost of the staple to a high of Sh3,500 for a 90-kilogramme bag.
Millers warn that the price will rise further in the coming days, leading to higher consumer prices.
NCPB has requested Sh10 billion to purchase maize for the Strategic Food Reserve in the current financial year to restock the depleted grain at the facility.
If given the allocation, it will mark the first time in the last three years that the government will be buying maize from farmers under the SFR programme, which was suspended in 2019.
NCPB has not been buying maize since 2020 on behalf of the government for SFR as had been the case before, however, it has been purchasing commercial maize for trading using internally generated funds.
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