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: 30 May 2017; Hits: 5898

Increased milk yield shakes prices downwards

Fresh milk at a supermarket. Two processor have announced the drop of the price of fresh milk by Sh10. Photo by The Star

Fresh milk consumers will pay Sh10 less for a half liter of milk after two leading processors announced the drop due to improved deliveries from farmers and importation of duty-free milk to covert the deficit.

New Kenya Co-operative Creameries (KCC) and Brookside Dairy announced the drop On Monday. The cost of half a litre packet of milk will retail at less than Sh60, depending on the brand.

Brookside and New KCC are the leading milk processors in the country. A packet of KCC will be retailing at Sh50 from the previous Sh60.

Tuzo, Ilara and Molo – brands owned by Brookside - will drop to retail at Sh52, Sh55 and Sh50 respectively after shedding off Sh10 each.

Milk started rising after the deliveries by farmers to the processors dropped after the drought that struck the country from mid November last year to April this year. Pastures dried up and the maize shortage caused a rise in feeds production costs, leading to the reduced milk output from farmers.

But in a statement, KCC reported a 20 per cent increase in deliveries of milk. Brookside reported a 30 per cent increase in farmers’ deliveries.

Besides the close to two-months rain, which has caused the recovery of green pastures like Napier grass, the government recently allowed for importation of 9,000 tonnes of duty free powdered milk to plug in the deficit gap.

By February 2017, the milk delivery to processors had dropped to 36.11 million litres from 56.44 million litres in October 2016. This caused the increase of the cost of the 500ml of from an average of Sh50 to more than Sh60.

Other farmers started selling milk to hawkers, who were offering higher prices per litre than the mainstream processors. The milk is sold in town in automated teller machines and other fresh shops.

Brookside milk procurement director John Gethi said in a statement that the company will monitor the situation and adjust the prices appropriately.

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: 29 May 2017; Hits: 6592

Uganda dominates regional agro-produce export

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Farmers who have just harvested sorghum in Nyanza region, Kenya. Apart from maize, Uganda is selling sorghum to Kenya. Photo by One Acre Fund.

Apart from the much talked about high maize cost, Uganda remains the main supplier of millet and sorghum to Kenya as the latter country recovers from the five-month long drought.

While Kenya imported 228.39 metric tons of sorghum from Uganda between May 29, 2017 and May 29, 2017, Rwanda took home only 10 metric tons from Uganda.

In millet importation from Uganda, Kenya brought in 59 metric tons in the five days while Rwanda took home 0.2 metric tons even as Tanzania bought nine metric tons.

In the five days under analysis, a 90kg bag of sorghum retailed at Sh8,032 in Nairobi followed by Burundi’s Bujumbura City at Sh7,185.

The wholesale price for the sorghum was Sh7,393 and Sh6,632 in Nairobi and Bujumbura respectively.

In Kampala, Uganda, the sorghum sold at Sh4,684 and Sh5,204 on whole sale and retail respectively.

In Dar es Salaam, the same quantity of the commodity traded at Sh5,874 and Sh7,133 in wholesale and retail respectively.

Rwanda’s Mulindi market was the lowest in the region, offering Sh4,453 in wholesale and Sh4,734 in retail.

Dar es salaam paid Sh10,489 for the same quantity of millet in retail while the wholesale price was Sh8,392. Mulindi was still the lowest, coming in with Sh5,918 and Sh6,087 in wholesale and retail respectively.

Uganda sold Millet at the second highest retail and wholesale price in the region despite supplying to her neighbours including DRC, South Sudan and the aforementioned.

On wholesale, millet fetched Sh9,107 and Sh8,327 on retail in Kampala.

The prices are courtesy of Regional Agricultural Trade Intelligence Network (RATIN).

READ ALSO: Brewery wants sorghum and millet

The prices of agro-products have been rising since November 2016 as the prolonged drought scaled down production of crops from the last quarter of 2016 to the first quarter of 2017.

Kenyan consumers and traders have been buying cheaper dry maize from Uganda to mitigate the effects of the consistent shortage that has caused the rise of the cost of the product despite the recently announced government subsidy.

The price of fruits and vegetables remained high from December last year until March this year, when the rains set in. But Maize has remained high – three months after the rains because no harvest has been made.

A bag of 90kg maize in Kenya retails between Sh3,500 and Sh5,000 depending on the town, With Loitoktok being the lowest and Mombasa one of the highest.

The cost of this staple food for most Kenyans may remain expensive due to the invasion of fall army worm pests that are fast spreading through the country.

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: 26 May 2017; Hits: 7858

Production plan reduces snap peas losses by 40 per cent

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Snap peas. Farmers are making losses due to poo planning and brokers. Photo by Fruitionseeds.wordpress.com

Poor timing and entry of middlemen in the supply chain are chopping off more than 40 per cent of the farmer’s earnings from snap peas despite the rise in prices for most agro-products.

Snap peas, snow peas and French beans are among Kenya’s leading fresh produce exported to the European Union, the US and other countries.

Although the export market is wide and paying well, Meru County farmer Julius Laban is selling snap peas to middlemen, who are paying dismally.

The brokers transport the produce to exporters in Nairobi.

Being a fresh product, holding it more can cause more losses, and this is pushing the farmer to dispose of the snap peas at Sh100 per kilo instead of the usual Sh250 for the same quantity.

With sufficient rain, Laban harvests at least 800kg from a 10m by 70m plot, which he says, should ideally earn him Sh200,000 in gross income.

Given the competition from other farmers, who flood the market, he has settled for a gross income of Sh80,000.

“Farmers have no choice when they cannot access high-end markets on their own. They take whatever the brokers offer. The export market for most horticultural products is flourishing, but this only benefits those who never worked hard in the farm,” he said.

Producing when every farmer is having the same crop reduces the price of the commodity as the buyers are spoilt for choice.

The price of commodities has been on the rise since November 2016, when drought engulfed the country, leading to a shortage shock. Only those who relied on irrigation benefitted from the high prices, which are still high for most commodities – more than two months after the rains.

Tomatoes for example leapt from Sh2,300 to more than Sh6,000 per 64kg crate in most towns such as Eldoret and Mombasa.

Snow peas take about eight weeks to mature. From the onset of the rains in March, the harvest is already booming. When the peas are in plenty, the buyers cut down on the price as the desperate farmers struggle to sell the fresh produce.

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