As a result of the low cost of maize in the market coupled with weak demand the price of maize flour has dropped to its lowest in two years.
The two kilogram packet of maize that was retailing for about kes 115 has dropped to around kes 103. Farmers have been greatly affected by the low demand of the grain with a 90 kilogram bag of maize that was previously retailing at kes 3,300 in July now dropping to kes 2,600.
The cost of maize has dropped drastically since last month due to the high supply of maize. The high supply of maize is attributed to the onset of harvest season in the north rift. The harvest season saw many farmers having more supply than the demand in the market hence forcing them to lower their prices.
The price of maize had hit a high of kes 120 on average for the whole of last year and remained high even with the onset of main crop harvest in October 2019. Farmers enjoyed the benefits as a 90 kilo bag of maize was selling at over kes 2,000 at the farm gate in 2019 from a low of kes 1,000 in 2018.
In addition the cost of grain expected to drop further in the coming days as only a handful of farmers have so far harvested with the exercise expected to peak in November.
This is however good news to households especially during this hard economic times when many people lost their jobs as a result of the world-wide pandemic COVID-19.
