A woman working on her a maize farm.[Photo/agra.org]
A bumper harvest of maize in Uganda has created a huge opportunity for Kenyan traders who are facing challenges accessing the commodity from local farmers.
The traders are buying maize cheaply from Uganda and selling it at high prices locally as Kenyan farmers are stuck with their produce in farms due to the continuing short rains.
Daily data provided by the Regional Agricultural Trade Intelligence Network (Ratin), a price discovery platform, indicates that the price of a 90-kilogram bag of maize was selling at Sh2,304 in Uganda as at end of last week compared to an average of Sh3,600 in Kenya.
According to Ratin, a 90 kg bag of maize in Tanzania is selling at Sh2,897, Burundi at Sh5,847 and Sh3,089 in Rwanda.
In Nakuru, the same is going for Sh2,500 and Sh2,600 in Eldoret. “Uganda has already harvested and there is a surplus of maize in the country hence the low price. There is currently a lot of cross-border trade in Busia with large volumes of grain coming into Kenya, “said a source from EAGC who sought anonymity.
Large-scale millers in Kenya, however, refuse to use maize from Uganda for flour as the commodity is blended.
The Ministry of Agriculture, however, says that the average price of a 90kg bag of maize is selling at Sh3,113 which is almost Sh100 less than the Sh3,200 the government is offering farmers to replenish the National Strategic Grain Reserve.
As at end of last week, National Cereals and Produce Board management confirmed that it had only managed to buy 342,452 bags of maize from farmers since the programme started.
This is due to the high rainfall in grain basket regions. Agriculture cabinet secretary Willy Bett stated that the country is likely to incur 20 percent post-harvest losses over and above losses growers suffered early in the season due to the infestation of fall armyworms.