Cheap wheat imports to hurt local farmers, says report

What you need to know:

  • Low cost of international wheat has seen millers import huge volumes of the produce in recent months.
  • Global price of wheat has dropped by 26.7 per cent in the last two months, making it cheaper for millers to import than buy it locally.

Low cost of international wheat has seen millers import huge volumes of the produce in recent months, a move likely to affect the price of the crop in the wake of harvesting in the country’s major grain belt of Narok.

The latest food security report from the ministry of Agriculture indicates that the global price of wheat has dropped by 26.7 per cent in the last two months, making it cheaper for millers to import than buy it locally.

According to the report, a tonne of wheat at the international market is retailing at Sh17,654 currently, compared with Sh24,098 in 2014.

Kenyan farmers normally demand high price for their crop, citing high costs of production, a move that compels millers to prefer imports.

Cereal Millers Association chairman Nick Hutchinson has defended the imports noting that their business is growing by 15 per cent every year while wheat production in the country has remained flat.

“Every year we need more wheat as the demand for the flour grows amid low volumes of the crop in the country, this is the reason we import a lot of wheat,” said Mr Hutchinson.

The report indicates that millers imported 492,371 bags of wheat between January and May 2016.