Commodities

Millers say they have exhausted stocks of subsidised maize

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Cereal Millers Association chairman Nick Hutchinson. file photo | nmg

Millers now say they exhausted subsidised maize for producing Sh90 flour last month and denied hoarding cheap flour.

The Cereal Millers Association (CMA) in a statement on Wednesday said the government had made provision for transition from subsidy, which included reducing the quantity of maize sold millers to ensure there were no stocks of cheap grain at the end of the programme.

Chairperson of the parliamentary committee on agriculture Silas Tiren on Monday claimed millers were still in possession of subsidy maize.

“The Ministry of Agriculture made provisions to transition into the end of the subsidy programme. Millers’ allocated quotas were reduced in order to ensure that no subsidy maize was left over at the end of the subsidy programme,” said the association’s chairman, Nick Hutchinson, who is also Unga Group MD.

“There was also an agreement that at the end of the subsidy programme (December 31), millers would return any leftover subsidy maize to National Cereals and Produce Board,” he added.

READ: Maize flour prices to hit Sh120 as subsidy ends

Mr Hutchinson said currently CMA members have no subsidised maize left in the stores and they are buying the produce at the commercial rate of Sh3,000 a bag.

Supermarket said they are yet to get 100 per cent of orders to millers but noted that normalcy of supply is expected to resume in the course of the week.

Naivas COO Willy Kimani told the Business Daily that millers are only meeting 70 per cent of their orders.

“We are getting flour but millers are yet to meet our orders fully. We expect this to normalise in the coming days,” said Mr Kimani.