Maize flour shoots to Sh130 a packet amid grain scarcity

The price of maize flour has shot to a two-year high of Sh130 per two-kilogramme packet this week as a grain shortage bites ahead of the next harvests.

This marks the steepest rise in the price of the staple that had held below Sh120 in the last four months, backed by regular State intervention in the market.

Millers attribute the current price increase — which makes maize flour more expensive than same quantity of wheat flour that retails at Sh121 — to scarcity of the raw material (dry white maize) in the market.

“There is no maize at the moment, and the resulting high grain prices have led to increased cost,” Unga managing director Nick Hutchinson told the Business Daily in a text message.

The State had initially projected that available national maize stock would last up to June with Agriculture Secretary Mwangi Kiunjuri even calling for duty free imports to boost supply in the three months to harvest.

Thursday, Chief Administrative Secretary in the Agriculture ministry Andrew Tuimur said the sudden price increase could have been caused by failure to address the import question.

“Remember we did not import maize this year, which was a good thing for farmers, however, this has created a deficit that has now led to high prices of flour,” said Dr Tuimur.

But he assured the rise was a temporary one “as the situation is expected to normalise as soon as next month following the onset of harvesting.”

“Counties like Uasin Gishu, Bungoma, Nandi and Trans-Nzoia have started harvesting and we expect that once this maize hits the market, then we’ll see a downward change on the price as early as next month,” he said.