The government, through the Ministry of Agriculture, has announced plans to gazette a 50 per cent duty waiver for the importation of 5.5 million bags of yellow maize to address the maize flour shortage in Kenya.
Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe, while addressing the press on Friday, April 4, expressed concerns over the growing competition between animal feed millers and maize millers for human consumption due to the limited maize grain stocks available in the country.
According to Kagwe, as a result of the increasing demand, the price of a 90-kilogram bag of maize rose by about 26 per cent over the past three months.
The CS noted that the upward trend in maize prices directly impacted the cost of production, prompting millers to pass the increased costs onto consumers through higher maize flour prices.
