Fao to monitor staple food prices in the country

The Food and Agriculture Organisation (Fao) is set to compile data from six towns in the country to monitor the change in staple food prices, in response to the frequent fluctuation in prices.

The information will be available on its “National Basic Food Prices Data and Analysis Tool”, which shows the prices of different food commodities in local currencies or dollars, local measurements and standard weights to allow for price comparisons between domestic and international markets, between different markets in the same country, as well as between countries.

While launching the tool earlier in the week Ms Liliana Balbi, a senior economist with FAO’s Global Information and Early Warning System, said the tool is to warn before an imminent food crisis.

Database

“The easy-to-use database will be a source of information for policy and decision-makers in agricultural production and trade, development and humanitarian work,” she said.

In Kenya, the price of maize and beans have been selected and are monitored in Busia, Eldoret, Kisumu, Mombasa, Nairobi and Nakuru, through data from the Regional Agricultural Trade Intelligence Network from the first month of 2006 to date.

Food price inflation hits the poor hardest, as the share of food in their total expenditures is much higher than that of wealthier populations.