Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe now says the government will release the strategic maize reserves they have to ensure flour prices don't go up.
Speaking on Monday, May 5, CS Kagwe told Kenyans not to panic about the prices of maize flour.
“There should be no panic about the price of unga going up. It is not going to go up, we are going to ensure it doesn’t go up by releasing the strategic maize reserves that we have,” said CS Kagwe.
Despite the Agriculture CS’s assurance, the consumer prices of maize flour have already gone up.
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The Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) in a report on April 30, revealed that the price of 2kgs of fortified maize flour had gone up by 2.6 percent over the last one month.
The price of 2 kgs of maize flour averaged Ksh169.41 in April, up from Ksh165.05 in March.
The bureau also noted that the price of 1kg of loose maize grain had increased by 2.9 per cent between March and April.
On April 4, CS Kagwe announced that the government would allow the importation of 5.5 million bags of yellow maize for a year with a 50% duty waiver for importers.
The Agriculture CS noted that the move would reduce the pressure on white maize, which is currently being used by humans and animals as feed.
“The government will gazette a 50% duty waiver for the importation of 5.5 million bags of yellow maize over a one-year period. This initiative will be carried out by a vetted list of qualified animal feed millers with sufficient capacity. The objective is to reduce pressure on local white maize stocks by shifting animal feed millers to yellow maize,” said Kagwe.
