The arrival of a ship carrying white maize is anticipated at the port of Mombasa from Matola Port in Mozambique, coinciding with a period of peak prices for this commodity.
Kenya is currently facing high prices for basic food items such as maize flour, which is a staple food in the country, and is hopeful that the arrival of the commodity will boost the supply chain and help reduce the price of the commodity. High prices are attributed to higher demand for the commodities, despite maize supply being scarce.
Furthermore, the shortage of the commodity is due to a prolonged drought that has impacted corn production regions in the country. As a result, a two-kilo packet of maize flour now retails for around KES190 and KES 200, up from a low of about KES 100.
Just recently, the country received 30,000 metric tonnes of wheat from Ukraine to support families impacted by drought and famine.
The contribution was a component of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s humanitarian initiative called ‘Grain from Ukraine’ (GfU), which was facilitated by the UN World Food Program (WFP) and received financial support from several countries including the United Kingdom, Norway, Belgium, Netherlands, Switzerland, Italy, Slovenia, and the Czech Republic.
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