•Joseph Karuri, chairman of the Association of Kenya Animal Feeds Manufacturers, said feed millers may increase the prices in the coming week as prices of maize have gone up.
•Currently, layers chicken feed is selling at Sh3,300 for a 70kg bag, a 70kg bag of broiler mash is going at Sh4,500 while dairy meal is selling at Sh2,300.
Image: Courtesy
The cost of animal feeds is expected to go up due to shortage of maize, following the ban on maize imports from neighbouring countries.
On March 5, 2021, the government through the Agriculture and Food Authority stopped importation of maize from Uganda and Tanzania.
Agriculture CS Peter Munya said this was due to the high levels of aflatoxin in maize coming from the two countries.
“Nobody has banned importation of maize because you cannot ban trading in East Africa, but we must ensure that standards that are already recognised in our protocols are observed,” he said.
Animal feed millers said the ban has led to a shortage of maize in the country, and that there is a short supply of maize because most of the maize comes from Uganda and now the pressure on the local maize is high.
Joseph Karuri, chairman of the Association of Kenya Animal Feeds Manufacturers, said feed millers may increase the prices in the coming week as prices of maize have gone up.
He said before the ban, the feed millers were buying a 90kg bag of maize at Sh2,350 but today it has gone up to Sh2700.
“Feed millers have not increased the prices of feeds yet because we acknowledge that even the farmers are suffering. So we are just waiting to see what will happen,” he said.
Currently, layers chicken feed is selling at Sh3,300 for a 70kg bag, a 70kg bag of broiler mash is going at Sh4,500 while dairy meal is selling at Sh2,300.
Karuri said: “If the ban continues and the price of maize continues going up, we shall have no choice but to increase the price bearing in mind that the cost of fuel has also increased. But if the maize prices stabilise, we will not have to increase.”
Wairmu Kariuki, chairperson of the Kenya Poultry Framers Association, said the ban on chicken meat and eggs import has helped stabilise the market but farmers are still grappling with high costs of feeds.
Last year, Martin Kinoti, the secretary general of Association of Kenya Feeds Manufacturers, said the solution is for animal feeds millers to discontinue use of white maize and instead use yellow maize.
However, yellow maize is not available in the country and animal feeds millers are forced to import.
Kinoti said the importation is limited because of Bio Safety Act, which prohibits use of genetically modified foods.
“Unfortunately most yellow maize produced in most countries are genetically modified, except from Ukraine and Mexico, hence the two dictate prices they want to sell at,” he said.
This leads millers to incur a lot to import maize and have to roll down the cost to the farmer.