Wheat farmers are demanding an increase in the price of a 90kg bag to Sh4,000.
Currently, millers offer between Sh3,100 and Sh3,200 for a bag.
Agriculture PS Hamadi Boga on Wednesday attributed farmers' demand to the rise in global prices.
“We import almost 70 per cent of the wheat consumed in the country and with the global prices up, farmers are demanding more,” he said.
The PS spoke to the Star in a phone interview. He said the outside market dynamics are influencing the prices. “But we will monitor how the global trend will behave,” he said.
Timothy Njagi, a senior researcher at Tegemeo Institute, said the increase in global prices can be due to reduced imports by Russia, the world's largest importer of wheat.
"Russia introduced an import duty to discourage importation of wheat into the country. Wheat is a staple food in Russia. This reduced the volumes of wheat and affected prices," he said.
The UN-Food and Agriculture Organization Cereal Price Index indicated that export prices for wheat, maize, sorghum and rice all rose in December. This was attributed to the overgrowing conditions and crop prospects in North and South America, as well as the Russian Federation.
The food and nutrition security report released by the Ministry of Agriculture showed stocks of eight million bags of wheat were available by the end of last October, with most of it imports.
The Food Balance Sheet showed that 5.9 million bags of wheat are expected by the end of this month.
Boga said 1.3 million bags of wheat were imported, mainly from Ukraine, Russia and Argentina. This is a lower margin compared to 2.5 million bags imported in the same period in 2019.
The report revealed that the projected production for the 2020 long-rains season was at three million bags of wheat and 1.1 million bags for the short-rains season.
The UN showed that wheat stock buildups in China account for the bulk of the expected year-on-year expansion in global inventories.
