Subsidised maize flour unsustainable, millers warn

Cereal Millers Association (CMA) has warned that the Sh90 flour subsidy cannot be sustained unless the government ensures steady supply of imported maize to millers.

The association chairman Nick Hutchinson on Tuesday told MPs that millers currently have no stock of maize in their stores and they entirely depend on the government for maize supply.

Mr Hutchinson warned that consumers may soon resort to buying the flour to between Sh135 unless the government intervenes urgently and ensures steady supply.

MEXICAN MAIZE

“The end of May is going to be tight and June will also be tight and we need to think of what we can do to sustain the Sh90 subsidy,” Mr Hutchinson told MPs.

“We need to forget about how the Mexican maize arrived in the country and the debate should now shift on what will happen two weeks from now,” added Mr Hutchinson.

Appearing before the parliamentary committee on agriculture yesterday, the millers said they warned the government twice in November last year and April this year about the impending maize shortage.

“We signalled to the government very early that things would be worse but we were operating in the belief that there was maize in farms which in reality was not true,” Mr Hutchinson said.

He said despite the second vessel arriving at the port of Mombasa yesterday, it has not been offloaded and the congestion at the Port and transportation for milling poses great challenge to availability of subsidised maize flour.

“One vessel has docked today (yesterday) and the next is expected at the Port of Mombasa mid -June. The lack of steady supply could see the prices of Unga rise to where we were at Sh135 per 2 kg packet of maize,” he said.

A fortnight ago the government lowered the cost of flour to Sh90 for a two-kilogramme packet in order to cushion Kenyans on the rising cost of the staple food.

GRIM PICTURE

While announcing the reduction price, Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Willy Bett said the government will offer millers cash to allow them mill flour at Sh2,300 for a 90-kilogramme bag, from the current Sh4,000.

Mr Hutchinson said by April, millers had only 110,000 bags of maize in their store which has currently dried out.

Rajah Shah, a miller said the country will be back to square one unless all the logistical issues are addressed.

“It will take time to stabilise the current biting maize shortage because as millers our stores dried out completely,” Mr Shah said.

The millers painted a grim picture of the country’s ability to feed its population saying the state should resort to importing between four to six million bags of maize in order to be food secure.

“We need between four to six million bags in our food store and we can only achieve that through imports. It is shameful for a country not to feed its people,” Mr Hutchinson said.

The millers were hard-pressed by MPs to explain if they caused the artificial shortage of maize in order to benefit later.

ERRATIC RAINFALL

“Did the millers intentionally create artificial shortage in order to benefit from the high prices,” asked Kwanza MP Ferdinand Wanyonyi.

Mr Wanyonyi said the country will have poor harvest this year due to erratic rainfall and poor fertilizers from the government.

“The Coast of production has gone high, we have a bad picture this year in terms of harvest,” Mr Wanyonyi said.

The millers denied hoarding maize saying they also had nothing in store hence could not make Kenyans suffer.

The millers also defended the government over importation of maize from Mexico saying the deal was above board contrary to myriad question that have been raised.