Millers, Agriculture and Food Authority clash on wheat imports delay
Agriculture and Food Authority (AFA) Director General Willis Audi before the Committee on Agriculture and Livestock at KICC, Nairobi County on July 3, 2023. PHOTO | DENNIS ONSONGO | NMG
Wheat flour millers have warned of a further rise in the cost of the commodity and its products such as bread in coming months on diminishing domestic stocks, blaming the regulator for delays in approving imports.
Multiple sources said Tuesday nearly two million 90-kilogramme bags of the grain are awaiting clearance at the Mombasa port pending the green light from the Agriculture and Food Authority (AFA).
The regulator maintains the approval will be given after the millers mop up the domestic stock to cushion local producers.
Under the Kenya Local Wheat Programme, Cereal Growers Association provides the estimated volumes of the grain held by farmers to the Agriculture Ministry, AFA, Treasury and millers at the beginning of each season.
The millers, who did not want to be identified claim Kenya has produced only 200,000 bags that are being bought by millers in Narok.
“There has been a delay in approvals of wheat imports by the Agriculture Food Authority (AFA), because they claim that millers have not mopped up the local wheat produce as per their quota, which is not the case,” said a top official of one of the wheat millers.
“Any costs incurred through demurrage, unentered [fee charged Grain Bulk Handlers Ltd for lack of clearance papers] and storage will ultimately affect consumer prices. Prices are expected to rise if the matter is not resolved in a timely manner.”
A spot-check on select retail stores in Nairobi showed a two-kilogramme packet of whole wheat flour is retailing at between Sh189 and Sh212, having increased from an average of Sh165.89 in May as per the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics.
The position of AFA is in line with the Ministry of Agriculture’s policy of exhausting local stock before importing.
The AFA promised to issue a statement but had not by the time of going to press. Kenya relies on imports to meet as much as three-quarters of the demand for the commodity used in baking food such as bread, chapati and cakes.
That prompted Kenya to successfully seek approval from the East African Community’s Council of Ministers to allow the importation of wheat at 10 percent duty for a year from July as opposed to the standard 35 percent for the bloc.
The reduced taxes, Treasury Cabinet Secretary Njuguna Ndung’u said on June 15, will “ensure that there is enough wheat to meet local demand, while at the same time protecting wheat farmers from unfair competition from imported wheat."
Wheat is planted between May and July largely in Narok and Uasin Gishu counties and harvested from November.
