Maize prices have climbed by KSh400 over the past month as millers and the National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) battle to secure limited supplies. A 90-kilo bag now goes for about KSh3,200, up from KSh2,800, and buyers warn the figure could keep rising after the UN’s World Food Programme placed Kenya on its list of hunger hotspots.
The scramble has seen millers push their offer to roughly KSh3,600, while NCPB is seeking up to two million bags at KSh3,500 each for the Strategic Food Reserve. The board has urged farmers to deliver, insisting its purchase centres are receiving steady, if slow, supplies.
Kenya expects a harvest of around 70 million bags in 2025, slightly higher than last year, helped by widespread use of subsidised fertiliser. Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe said 21.3 million bags of fertiliser worth KSh53.25 billion have been distributed across recent seasons.
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Millers caution that pressure on supply, poor rainfall forecasts and rising production costs could push prices even higher. Kenya has relied heavily on imports too, averaging nearly 300,000 tonnes of maize annually over the past five years, with Uganda sending in significantly larger volumes in the 2022/2023 season.
Meanwhile, the latest data from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics shows inflation edging up to 4.6 percent in September, driven largely by higher food, transport and electricity prices.
