2kg maize flour to cost sh 75 per  packet for Coast residents

0
1771
Irrigation PS Zeinab Hussein and CS Eugene Wamalwa launch the new two-kilogramme packet of maize flour from Galana called Unga Galana. PHOTO: COURTESY.

Nairobi,KENYA:Coast residents are set to start buying a packet of flour at sh 75 almost half of the normal retail price of sh 140.

This is according to the Cabinet Secretary for Water and Irrigation Eugene Wamalwa, who says that the flour, branded Unga Galana, would be milled from maize grown at the Galana –Kulalu irrigation scheme in Kilifi county.

“The National Irrigation Board can now put a packet of unga on the shelves at Sh.75 from the 10,000-acre model farm in Galana-Kulalu irrigation,” Said Wamalwa during a press briefing in Nairobi on Wednesday.

So far the sheme has produced 165,000 bags of Maize and 5,000 of them have been milled and ready for distribution.

The price of a two-kilogamme packet of maize flour is currently about Sh142 in supermarkets. The government on Tuesday announced the cost would come down to Sh115 in a week.

This comes  a week after the government scrapped off import duty from maize bags imported from Mexico and Ethiopia.

The government also authorized the release of 1 million bags of Maize from the National Cereals and Produce Board (NCPB) Silos in a move that is expected to see maize flour retail at sh 115 a kilo.

The Galana-Kulalu irrigation scheme which was launched in 2014 has been marred by controversies owing to the huge amounts of cash pumped into the project and little output it has.

However the government says that in 6 months 200,000 acres of the farm will be put into use.

Comments

comments