In 2024, Kenyans were forced to spend more on various food items due to supply and demand dynamics.
As revealed in the year-on-year November report by the Kenya Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) comparing the changes in food prices, 6 food items witnessed price growth.
The food items listed were cabbages, potatoes, carrots, cooking oil, onions and packed milk.
For instance, the price of 1kg of cabbage between November 2023 and November 2024 grew by 40.6 per cent.
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On the other hand, the price of 1kg of potatoes grew by 24.8 per cent during that period.
Prices of 1 litre of cooking oil grew by 5 percent even as the price of 1kg of onions grew by 1.6 percent.
Notably, the price changes for onions were occasioned by the weather patterns in 2024 especially during the heavy rains witnessed between March and May.
Conversely, some food items witnessed a drop in prices. This included tomatoes, maize flour and sugar.
The drop in tomato and maize flour prices was explained by the favourable weather conditions that enabled farmers to get bumper harvests.
“The favourable rainfall had resulted in conditions that favoured the growing of fresh vegetables such as kales-sukuma wiki, tomatoes, maize and beans,” read part of the September Agriculture Survey by CBK.
“Farmers also expected output to increase as a result, controlling for any other factors that may undermine output. Farmers who rely on irrigation were optimistic that the favourable rainfall had raised the water table and hence it was less costly to pump water from boreholes.
Additionally, the drop in sugar prices was explained by the reopening of various sugar companies in the country.
Other Factors That Led to High Food Prices
In another Agricultural Survey conducted by the CBK in November, high transportation costs were revealed to be a factor that contributed to the high cost of food items throughout the year.
This is despite the drop in fuel prices witnessed between September and November 2024.
Vehicle owners and transporters have explained the deleted transportation costs due to the high cost of spare parts.
“The proportion reporting transport costs as a factor influencing retail prices remained high, with a slight decrease to 86 per cent in November 2024 compared to 88 per cent in September 2024, possibly reflecting the benefit of recently lower and stable fuel prices,” read the report in part.
“The impact of weather conditions (floods, drought) moderated in November 2024 with 62 per cent of sampled respondents reporting weather to be a factor influencing retail prices against 93 per cent in September 2024.”
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