CS Linturi Summons 20 Local Millers Over Unga Prices

Agriculture CS Mithika Linturi has summoned over 20 local maize millers over the price of unga.

The CS stated that he will ask why they have not yet reduced the pricing of unga based on their brands during the meeting, which will be on Friday.

“I have called all of the maize millers who are beneficiaries for a meeting on Friday because whatever revenue the government is going to lose by way of import duty must be reflected in the reduction of the price of that commodity in the market,” Linturi said on Tuesday night.

President William Ruto publicly announced last week that the price of unga will decrease starting this week.

Hussein Mohamed, a spokesman for the State House, reported on Monday that unga prices have decreased at some retailers.

Only the Ajab and Umi brands, nevertheless, had pricing in the majority of supermarkets that were marginally less than sh170.

The remainder was still in the range of Sh200 and Sh230.

Even as images of some businesses selling their products for somewhat less than Sh160 start to surface on social media, a portion of millers denied lowering pricing for unga.

Ajab brand was one of the winners when the Kenya Kwanza administration decided to give maize millers permission to import maize duty-free, according to CS Linturi.

He said that the brand’s consignment might have started to arrive, which is why the price has been reduced.

Linturi announced at the Friday meeting that he would decide on the day and time when the other millers would be bringing their shipments.

“They might have problems in raising the money required to import the maize or raising certain instruments for foreign trading but I will know for certain on Friday,” he explained.

The import licenses for the duty-free maize are scheduled to expire in August, right around the time that local maize producers harvest their crops.

In relation to that, CS Linturi stated that millers run the risk of having their import licenses cancelled if they apply for the permits but do not buy the commodities by the deadline.

“This is why I am calling the importers this Friday. I want to give them notice so that they can understand that if they are late in the delivery of commodities then it will not be good for them,” he said

“I will finally end up cancelling their permits, immediately there are signs that my farmers are harvesting the maize that we’ve been trying to support them to grow,” Linturi added