Retailers have raised concerns over a shortage in supply of the Sh100 flour as the subsidy programme runs into headwinds two weeks after rollout.
Supermarkets have gone without the subsidy flour for the last couple of days on the back of supply hitches, which had earlier been blamed on panic buying.
A survey by the Business Daily shows that since Monday there has been no Sh100 flour on the shelf in all the supermarkets in town. Premium flour brands -Amaize and Hostess were also missing on the shelves.
Naivas Supermarket chief commercial officer Willy Kimani said they are only getting 25 percent of their requirement.
“We are not getting enough stocks and that is what is creating a shortage in some of our branches,” Mr Kimani told the Business Daily.
“We have been limiting our consumers to four packets of flour but now there is nothing to ration because flour is not there,” he said.
The subsidy programme is now running into its second week and millers had said the problems witnessed in the first week of its rollout would have cleared by now.
Processors have confirmed that they are milling daily and that the supply of maize has stabilised in the market.
It has also emerged that millers are yet to be paid for the deliveries that they have been made so far to the market as the government is yet to release the first batch of payment to processors.
The subsidy agreement signed between millers and the government a fortnight ago indicated that millers would be paid after five days of supply.
Millers said they had submitted the forms for payment on Wednesday but they were sent back to them for additional documentation and stamping.
“The Ministry of Agriculture said some of the forms did not have stamps and that they could not be verified, so they sent them back to us,” said one of the millers.
It may take at least another five days before they are paid and this could impact a smooth supply of flour to the market as the delay will have an impact on cash flow.
The State two weeks ago inked a deal with millers to cut the price of maize flour to Sh100 under a Treasury-backed subsidy, in the Sh8 billion programme.
