Milk on supermarket shelves. PHOTO | DENNIS ONSONGO | NMG
The Livestock Department wants the dairy sector regulator to
probe the high consumer prices of milk at a time the farm-gate rates
have fallen
Livestock Principal Secretary Harry Kimtai
said the Agriculture ministry would task the Kenya Dairy Board (KDB) to
look at the variance between the price at which the processors are
buying milk and what consumers are paying for the commodity off the
shelves.
Milk processors cut producers price of milk by Sh8 per litre, citing increased supply.
“The
Kenya Dairy Board is the one charged with the regulations and we shall
be asking them to examine the variance between the buying price from
farmers and the retail price at the shelf to examine if the current cost
is justified,” said Mr Kimtai.
The half-litre packet of long-life milk is retailing at Sh50 across all brands while the fresh one is going at Sh45.
Volumes of milk
KDB said the volumes of milk have increased significantly with
four leading processors now processing 1.2 million litres, up from
800,000 litres in November last year.
Last month, the
regulator said the milk market has been liberalised and that KDB might
not have much say in regard to the pricing.
“The dairy
sector was liberalised a while back and processors have been at liberty
to set prices based on the demand and supply of milk in the market,”
said Margret Kibogy, KDB managing director.
Mr Kimtai
says the growth in volumes has been occasioned by high level of
sensitisation and capacity building to farmers and competitive prices
offered by milk factories.
Until last year, processors
were offering record high price. They have been buying a litre of the
commodity at between Sh38 and Sh40 per litre before it was revised
downwards early this month to about Sh30.
Data from KDB
shows the volumes bought by five major processors hit 634 million
litres up from 591 million realised in the previous year.
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