News and knowhow for farmers

Flour companies urgently buying maize from all-comers

Maize bag By the Star

Unga Ltd and Pembe flour mills, the manufacturers of human and animal nutrition products such as fine maize flour are looking for farmers to supply them with dry maize on a daily basis.

The companies want maize with a moisture content of below 13.5 per cent and there is no limit to the amount to be supplied. The supply is based on a willing buyer, willing seller basis.

Unga Limited buys a 90kg of dry maize at Sh2400 while Pembe flour mills purchases the produce at Sh26.67 per kilo.

Related 

Thika pickle Company wants tomatoes, onions and garlic from farmers

Markets open up to food solar drying project

Maize farmers bypass volatile markets, sell directly to millers

A farmer with produce can physically visit Unga Ltd offices or Pembe flour millers with a sample of their produce which will be analyzed and aflatoxin levels checked. The process of checking for the toxins takes about 20 minutes.

Alternatively for Unga Ltd, one can visit the company’s website http://ungagroup.com/suppliers/ and download four supplier forms and submit the information to information@unga.com

The maize supplied should be free from foreign odors, moulds, live pests, rat droppings, toxic and noxious weed seeds.

A loader carries a 90kg bag of maize to the NCPB Eldoret in January 2018. 

In January this year, the Cereal millers Association announced that they had no subsidized maize left in their stores. This was after a government subsidized maize program ended in December 2017.

Under the subsidy program, the Kenyan government through the ministry of agriculture sold maize millers a 90kg bag at Sh2300, the price being 42.5 per cent lower than the import price as the state settled the difference.

The millers received a total 6.7m bags during as from May 2017 to December 2017.

The shortage in maize supply to millers in Kenya is attributed to infestation by fall army worm and prolonged drought in 2017. This led to a decrease in production from an expected yield of 40m bags to about 32m bags yet the crop is a staple food crop accounting for 65 per cent of the total food consumption.

 A study by Egerton’s University Tegemeo Institute conducted in 2017 revealed that Kenya faces a maize shortfall of five million bags as from April 2018, the onset of the long rains and the planting season. This means that millers face a severe shortage of maize for sustainable production.

In December 2017 and January 2018 maize farmers mostly in Kenya’s bread basket of the Rift Valley supplied their produce to the National Cereals Produce Board but a majority of them faced a delay in payment to date. Over two million bags have so far been delivered to NCPB. The Board is purchasing a 90kg bag at Sh3,200 a 6.25 per cent increase from last year’s Sh3,000.

Unga Ltd can be reached on +254 722 205 353/ +254 724 257 058/ +254 733 618 344/ +254
738 200 100 while Pembe Flour Mills can be reached on  +254 20 2046407, +254 20 2161774 or +254 20 2161776

 

 

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Scroll to Top