The Cereal Millers Association (CMA) has raised concerns over the current maize situation in the Country. This includes dwindling maize stocks and increased maize rejection in the market.
According to the Chair CMA Mr. Nick Hutchinson, the increased maize rejection in the market is due to aflatoxin chemical challenge in the produce making prices cheap.
There is no value for producing clean maize meal because of the challenge and testing each bag of maize is expensive and not practical with no proper defined methods of disposing of contaminated maize.
“The Association members are currently rejecting up to 50% of deliveries of the maize on some days. Much of the maize is wet, rotten and has high levels of aflatoxins, this includes, maize sourced from Uganda and Tanzania”, said Mr. Hutchinson.
The Chair explained that millers were buying maize grain delivered to factories at an average price of Kshs 2,300 per 90-kilogram bag in the last two years whereas today on average millers are buying a 90kg bag of maize delivered at a factory at between Kshs 2,650 and 2,700.
The Association now says that poor maize quality in the market is further exacerbated by reducing yields from farms which is making flour processing expensive therefore affecting prices for consumers.
However, CMA has made various gains in the industry, for instance, created awareness over aflatoxin challenge, upgrading maize testing laboratories and working out with the government to do regular aflatoxin testing.
CMA has therefore recommended that aflatoxin should be declared a national emergency, development of a formal national strategy to address aflatoxin and establishment of an authoritative mechanism on national food safety.
Others are that farmers should be encouraged to adopt agronomic practices to facilitate aflatoxin control and millers should develop grains for aflatoxin management.
The Association also highlighted that local production is reducing in the face of continued consumer demand.
“As a Country we have been importing maize due to the annual deficit of between 10 to 14 million bags, we anticipate that due to good harvests and the drop in fuel prices local wheat farmers will be able to match import parity of prices”, added Hutchinson.
Wheat has also been reported to operate in cycles due to low prices and the high cost of production for Kenyan farmers, therefore, the government wishes to protect farmers by setting management for standard floor prices.