Ministry mulls options at taming rising cost of food

A trader arranges piles of potatoes in Nairobi on October 18, 2020. 

Lucy Wanjiru | Nation Media Group

By  Gerald Andae

Business Reporter

Nation Media Group

What you need to know:

• The price of basic commodities like sugar, milk, wheat flour and bread have been on an upward trend in the last few weeks.

•  The government has been using stocks stored at the Strategic Food Reserve as an intervention to stem high prices of flour by selling it to millers at subsidised price.

The government is monitoring the current food price increases and will intervene if they go beyond the reach of ordinary Kenyans, Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Peter Munya has said.

 While they expect the price of items such as maize to go up in coming days, the CS said last week, there is need to strike a balance between the interests of farmers and those of consumers.

The price of basic commodities like sugar, milk, wheat flour and bread have been on an upward trend in the last few weeks, sparking fears of shooting the cost of living through the ceiling.

“We’re predicting prices to go up depending on availability and we shall continue monitoring the situation and if need be come up with the best intervention,” the CS said.

The biggest challenge, Mr Munya said, is to maintain favourable prices for each party. Whereas farmers need good prices for their produce, he said, consumers, too, ask for prices that are pocket-friendly.

Selling to millers

He said the country has not experienced high prices of maize flour so far as the cost has remained low at Sh100 for a two-kilogramme packet compared with last year’s Sh120 for the same quantity.

 The government has been using stocks stored at the Strategic Food Reserve (SFR) as an intervention to stem high prices of flour by selling it to millers at subsidised price.

However, there are currently no stocks of the staple at SFR after it failed to purchase the grain last year.

Millers have also warned of a looming price increase of maize flour following a recent jump in that of the cereal that has now hit Sh2,700 for a 90-kilogramme bag, up from Sh1,800 in October.

Essential commodities

Last year, Mr Munya said the government would resort to price controls to tame traders taking advantage of the coronavirus crisis to exploit consumers. He will need to invoke the Price Control Act to do so, he said.

Then President Kibaki endorsed this law in 2011, allowing Kenya to return to price controls of any essential commodity, after they were abandoned in the 1990s in favour of economic liberalisation.

 gandae@ke.nationmedia.com