Economy

Costly unga looms as talks on maize price signal raise

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A maize flour section in a supermarket. FILE PHOTO | NMG

The State has moved to entrench its price-setting role as farmers prepare to harvest their maize in what is expected to deny the consumer cheap grains from the seasonal glut.

The Strategic Food Reserve (SFR), the unit of national granary which handles Kenya’s emergency grain stock, is already holding meetings with players in the maize sector at key growing zones “to set the price at which maize will be bought at this year”.

This marks a departure from the norm where the Ministry of Agriculture has always announced prices at which the SFR buys the commodity from farmers.

The SFR board has been holding meetings with farmers, millers and traders in different parts of the country since last week and is expected to come up with agreed price by Friday.

The board chair Noah Wekesa says the move is aimed at coming up with the price that is agreeable by everyone to avoid controversies once the board starts purchasing the crop.

“We want to come up with the price that is a product of all the stakeholders and that it will be accepted by everyone,” said Dr Wekesa.

The price at which SFR buys maize, though not binding on industry players, usually taken by millers, farmers and traders as the commodity’s minimum price.

It has however emerged that National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) will only purchase four million bags of maize from this season’s crop, according to Dr Wekesa.

The revelation is likely to anger farmers, who were equally unable to sell to NCPB last year over the low quotas.

Last year, NCPB, which buys maize on behalf of SFR for relief purposes, purchased close to 10 million bags from growers marking one of the highest stocks to have been bought from farmers.