Posted on October, 31, 2019 at 09:53 am
By GERALD ANDAE - Business Daily
Traders have increased the price of dry white maize as pre-harvest shortage bites, setting the stage for costly flour as millers prepare to adjust contracts due this week.
Traders, who are bringing in the grain from Tanzania, have alerted millers that they would raise the price of the commodity from the current Sh3,700 per 90-kilogramme bag to Sh4,000, starting this week.
According to the millers, traders had been hoarding their stocks, releasing piecemeal quantities to influence prices to their advantage ahead of the new contracts.
"We are not getting sufficient stocks at the moment and traders have indicated that they will be selling to us a 90-kg bag at Sh4,000 in the next contract," said Nick Hutchinson, chief executive at Unga Limited.
The current stocks of maize are imported from Uganda and Tanzania as the ongoing rains delay harvesting of the main crop in the breadbasket of North Rift.
The price of maize flour has already gone up to a two-year high with a two-kilo packet retailing at Sh135 up from Sh120, even as millers warn of further rise depending on the cost of raw material.
Source: Business Daily