The government has assured Kenyans that the country has enough maize stock to last until the next harvest.
Agriculture PS Paul Rono said there are available stocks to last up to the next main harvest of long rains starting August 2024 in most counties.
“The maize balance sheet projected to end of August 2024 shows a surplus of about 31.07 million 50kg bags. This is based on carryover stocks of 36.6 million bags and estimated 1.08 million 50kg bags as forecast imports from May,” he said.
Rono added that about 24.5 million bags will be harvested from the long rains crop from low altitude, warmer counties where maize crop was planted in early January. They include Bomet, parts of Narok, Nyamira and parts of Migori counties.
According to the recent Food and Nutrition Security Report by the Ministry of Agriculture, the wheat balance sheet projected to end in August 2024, shows a surplus of 10.2 million 50kg bags.
“This is with the assumption of 8.7 million 50kg bags of imports from the private sector from May, and early long rains harvest of 2.8 million 50kg bags,” the report said.
The country relies on routine importation to sustain the demand of the wheat consumed in the country.
The beans balance sheet projected to end of July 2024, shows a surplus of 10.3 million of 50kg bags based on carryover stocks of 3.4 million bags.
This is approximately 270,000 bags estimated imports by the private sector from May, and about nine million bags to be harvested by early June and July.
On rice, the balance sheet projected to end of August 2024, showed a surplus of 4.1 million 50kg bags. This is based on carryover stocks 3.3 million 50kg bags, and estimated imports by private sector and relief agencies of approximately 3.6 million bags from May and long rain harvest of 1.2 million 50kg bags.
The PS said the status of the national food security has improved from May, and that most of the staple foods are available both at household and markets.
This led to a price decline of basic staples, especially cereals and pulses as some farmers who had been keeping the stocks on speculation decided to release the stocks into the market.
However, the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics May 2024 Consumer Price Index—which tracks the changes in prices of key food staples— showed a slight increase by one per cent to 5.1 per cent compared to April index of five per cent.
The slight increase was mainly driven by rise in prices of fresh vegetables such as spinach, kales/sukuma-wiki, tomatoes and Irish potatoes.
“Improved crop production in 2023 and improved local supplies of most food staples continue to impact on the importation of most basic staples with a general declining trend since January 2024,” he said.
The PS said the total imports of maize for May decreased from 523,771 (50kg bags) in April to 516,151 (50kg) bags and compared to 633,555 (50kg bags) imported in March.
“Most of the maize imports was from Tanzania with considerable amounts coming in from Uganda,” Rono said.
He added the quantity of beans imported in May doubled from 5,153 bags 50kgs to 11,931 50kg imported in April but still the total imports are very low compared to previous years.
In addition, the quantity of rice imported in May decreased further to 352,300 50kg bags compared to 610,020 50kg bags imported in April and compared to 1.185 million 50kg bags imported in March.