Chicken feed prices have risen by at least 37 per cent in the last four years according to a new report by the Competition Authority of Kenya, driving farmers to make their own feeds.
This has led to the price of chicken feed in Kenya being almost double that in South Africa and Brazil. According to the report released this week, even feed supplied by a Dar es Salaam-based feed maker to Central and Western Kenya is cheaper than what is produced locally even after adding the input and feed cross-border transport costs.
These high prices of chicken feed are leading to more and more farmers switching to alternative feeding methods for their poultry according to the Federation of Kenya Poultry Farmers.
“A 50kg bag of layers mash has more than doubled from Sh1,850 to Sh4,200 for a 50kg sack in the last five years, while egg prices have stagnated at Sh280–300 per tray. This has squeezed the profit margins for farmers. Today more and more farmers are opting to make their own meals leaving feed companies battling with waning sales,” Benson Maina an official at FKPF said.
In the last three years alone 30 feed makers have gone out of business and with them over 1,000 jobs have been lost.
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According to the report by the Competition Authority of Kenya (CAK), so expensive are Kenya’s poultry feed prices are still 43 per cent higher than those of Malaysia where in 2023 when they prosecuted a feed cartel for price fixing. Malaysia imports almost all the maize and soymeal used to make its animal feeds.
Ultimately these high prices of feed end up hurting Kenya consumers in the price they pay for chicken and eggs. Chicken in Kenya costs double, Sh517/kg, what it does in South Africa.
Some of the alternative feeding methods that farmers are opting for and we have highlighted are Black Soldier Fly Larvae, azolla, duckweed, omena, or homemade feed formulations which cut down the need for expensive feeds by up to 75 per cent.
Kenya imports most of its soybean meal and sunflower cake and some of its maize for making chicken feed from Tanzania, Uganda, Malawi, and Zambia.
These imports are controlled by four large companies leading to higher prices because they own the entire feed-making process. They import, mill, and make chicken feed.
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“If the country had a more open and competitive feed-making market it would save farmers over three billion shillings every year,” said part of the report by CAK.
These savings on the cost of feed would have meant lower egg and poultry prices and created more jobs boosting the economy.