Kenyans will have to wait longer for food prices to go down as imported maize and rice consignments are expected in the country from August.

This is after the Ministry of Agriculture endorsed the importation of additional 500,000 tonnes of white duty-free maize and 500,000 tonnes of rice to cushion consumers against the high cost of the staples due to acute shortage.

However, then National treasury in a gazette notice made it clear that the imported foodstuff must meet specific national and international standards.

“The imported white maize shall have a moisture content not exceeding 13.5 per cent and aflatoxin levels shall not exceed 10 parts per billion (ppb) as provided by the Kenya Bureau of Standards (Kebs) and the Department of Public Health of the Ministry of Health,” stated the notice.

The imports will be required to be accompanied by a certificate of conformity from Kebs.

This comes at a time when there is a biting scarcity of maize, something that has made the price of maize rise sharply, currently a 90kg sack of maize is going at 6200.

The  sharp rise in the prices has made the price of maize flour which is Kenya’s staple source of starch retail at 200 per 2kg packet.

Whereas the government wants the imported maize to sell at Sh4,200 per 90-kilogramme bag, millers have set tough conditions, including having market forces of supply and demand determine the prices and payment of last year’s Sh2.6 million subsidy arrears.

The maize scarcity has made most millers scale down their operations even as others shut down their mills and sent their workers home as part of cost-cutting measures due to an acute shortage of maize to sustain their crushing capacity.