State caps flour price at Sh115

Workers offloading maize flour from a truck; the price of commodity has gone up following end of governments maize subsidy programme

NAIROBI, KENYA: The Government has warned millers against hiking maize flour prices past Sh115.

Speaking at the Galana irrigation scheme on Wednesday, Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Willy Bett said the Government was buying maize for Sh3,200 per 90kg bag yet millers were getting the same for a much cheaper price.

“Most millers are buying maize at around Sh2,700 so the cost of flour should never go beyond Sh115 because the amount of money we are paying as Government is Sh3,200,” said Mr Bett.

"As Government we have stabilised the cost of maize and ensured it does not go beyond that."

He maintained that even with calculated profit for the millers and retailers the price of a 2kg packet of maize flour cannot go beyond Sh150.

"We will take all interventions available to us. We have strategic reserve to stabilise prices and if that is not enough the idea of bringing maize from outside the region is also available," he said.

The CS said if retailers and millers continued to charge exorbitant prices, the Government would step in with stringent unspecified measures.

"The Government is monitoring and we are willing to take intervention measures we have on our sleeves to curtail the situation," he said.

He was responding to Peter Kuguru, the chairman of United Grain Millers Association, who told a section of the media that the price of a 2kg packet of maize flour could go up to Sh200 by March.

Mr Kuguru said the available maize could only last until next month.

But Bett refuted the sentiments, saying the maize subsidy that ran for seven and a half months was the biggest investment by the Government to cushion consumers from the abnormal spike of flour prices.