The New KCC will start buying milk from farmers at Sh33 effective Thursday, Agriculture CS Peter Munya has said.
New KCC and Brookside have been buying milk at between Sh19 to Sh27 at the farm gate.
Speaking in his first press conference in charge of the Agriculture docket on Wednesday, Munya said this is in line with President Uhuru's intention of boosting the milk industry.
"Following the President's directive, I have authorised New KCC to immediately start buying milk from farmers at Sh33 per litre. The milk will be processed into powder for strategic food reserve as well as for use by GoK agencies & as relief food. GoK agencies will only buy local milk," Munya said.
According to New KCC MD Nixon Sigey, they have requested for Sh2 billion to help mop out milk in the country when there is a glut but the government released Sh500 million.
This directive comes a day after the President’s directive to allocate Sh500 million to the New KCC for the conversion of excess milk from farmers into powder is only a quarter of the funds required by the state body.
Uhuru on Tuesday said the funds would be used to purchase surplus milk from dairy farmers, to be converted into powder form for future use.
Last November, then Agriculture CAS Andrew Tuimur said the ministry had requested Sh2 billion through the Strategic Food Reserve (SFR) to cater for the processing of excess milk into powder.
The Public Finance Management Act, 2015 states that the SFR includes maize, beans, rice, fish, powdered milk and canned beef.
This as milk production has grown more than three-fold owing to conducive weather conditions from a monthly average of 15 million litres to 62 million litres produced per month.
"My intent is to boost the milk industry with 1.07 billion shillings in the immediate run as a way of supporting their efforts," Uhuru said.
