Maize flour price drops by biggest margin in years

The price of flour has dropped by a big margin for the first time in nearly two years, responding to lower cost of maize in the market coupled with weak demand.

Two kilogramme packets of major flour brands in retail chains have gone down to Sh103 for Soko, Sh110 for Jogoo and Sh108 for Pembe. These brands had been retailing above Sh115 last month.

The cost of maize has been declining since last month with the onset of harvesting in some parts of the north rift.

“We have seen an increase in maize supply, and this is the main reason why the prices have been dropping. However, this is also due to lower demand for flour that has forced millers to lower factory prices to attract consumers,” said one of the millers who did not want to be named.

A 90 kilogramme bag of maize that has been retailing at Sh3,300 in July has now dropped to Sh2,600 as the supply of grain in the market improves.

The cost of grain is expected to drop further in the coming days as only a handful of farmers have so far harvested with the exercise expected to peak in November.

The decline in flour prices, which is a major staple in the country will come as a boost to households that are grappling with loss of income due to the negative effects of the Covid pandemic on the economy.

Flour prices hit a high of Sh120 on average for the whole of last year and remained high even with the onset of main crop in October 2019, which millers had anticipated that could have brought relief to consumers.

Farmers enjoyed relatively good prices for the entire of last year with a 90 kilo bag of maize selling at over Sh2,000 at the farm gate in 2019 from a low of Sh1,000 a year earlier.