600,000 maize bags from NCPB to help keep flour price low

Millers say the price of flour will be maintained at the current cost until June after the government released over 600,000 bags of maize from its stores for sale to processors.

Cereal Millers Association (CMA) chairman Nick Hutchinson said the move will increase the supply of grain and maintain low retail prices, giving consumers a sigh of relief.

National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) has called for interested millers to purchase part of its old grain at Sh2,300 a bag from its depots across the country.

“With the release of these stocks from NCPB and the imports coming in from Uganda and Tanzania, the price of flour will be maintained at the current cost as we do not foresee any increment between now and June,’ said Mr Hutchinson.

READ: Falling maize flour prices ease strain on household budgets

The price of flour has been on a downward trend in the last one and a half months after rallying to a high of Sh115 for a two-kilo packet in January, when the government subsidy scheme that helped to lower the cost from a high of Sh153 last year came to an end in December.

A two-kilo packet of Jimbi is currently retailing at Sh98 from Sh101, Kifaru Sh99 from Sh104, Soko Sh100 from Sh104, Pembe 100 from 106 with Jogoo selling at Sh101 from Sh105 previously.

Processors have attributed the declining prices to low cost of procuring maize in the market. A bale of flour in the factories is selling at Sh1,100 at the moment down from Sh1,230 in January this year.

Millers are now on average buying a 90-kilogramme bag of maize at Sh2,300 in the market from a high of Sh3,000 in December.