Soon after Benard Njiraini led KEBS banned 27 brands of maize and baking flour, their prices have fallen to all-time lows.
Consumers are enjoying a reprieve with the price of maize flour dropping below Sh100 for a two-kilo packet on retail shelves.
On Friday, Kenya Bureau of Standards (Kebs) exonerated itself from any blame in the banning of the 27 maize flour brands, maintaining due process was followed before going public.
Bernard Njiraini, the Kebs managing director said letters were sent to manufacturers informing them to withdraw products from the market for failing to meet the set requirement.
The Cereal Millers Association had protested that Kebs did not reach out to the affected firms before going public.
Jogoo brand is now retailing at Sh99 down from Sh109, Soko is selling at Sh96 down from Sh104 with Mama brand fetching Sh96. The lower prices are a result of falling maize costs, accounting for 80 percent of the total charges involved in flour milling.
A 90- kilo bag of maize is now going for Sh2,600 from a high of Sh2,900 last month as the supply of the commodity in the market improves following the onset of harvesting of the short rain crop in South Rift.
The Ministry of Agriculture is projecting a surplus of 12 million bags of maize at the end of this month. It attributes the surplus to cross-border imports and the balance arising from the long rain crop harvested from the previous season.
“The maize balance sheet projected to end of August 2021 shows a surplus of about 11.9 million bags based on estimated 450,000 bags imports by the private sector from the region and harvest estimates from the long rains of approximately 7.3 million bags,” said the ministry.
Millers have said that the cost of flour is not likely to increase any further because of good maize supplies.
