The Kenya gorvement has cut it short on maize tax imports to boost shipment from outside the East Africa Community(EAC). Being the main staple food in the country maize is used to make a variety of meals like ugali, githeri and porridge. Kenya imports maize from EAC , Uganda and Tanzania being the mainly suppliers.
Ukur Yatani the National Treasury Cabinet Secretary waived import fees on white non-genetically modified organism(GMO) maize of up to 540,000 tonnes until August 6. The Nationaly Treasury CS said that has he has been notified by his agriculture counter Peter Munya that Kenya could be hit with maize shortage unless the gorvement acted to allow more imports of the grain to plug the supply deficit.
Over the past few months maize prices have been on the rise due to the shortage caused by poor production in the previous season in the country. The production declined by 12.8 percent from 42.1 million bags in 2020 to 36.7 million bags in 2021 after a prolonged drought hit the most productive regions for an extended period of year.
The decline has seen maize flour prices sour by 15 percent over the past year with the data from the Kenya National Bureau of Statastics(KNBS) showing the cost of 2kg packet sifted maize flour cost an average of Ksh134 in April upto Ksh117 during the same month in the year.
