More urban households now source food upcountry amid economic pinch
Kariuki Gatiba, a trader, arranges groceries at Nyeri Town Market on May 3, 2023.
Many households in urban areas, including Nairobi, are increasingly shipping food items such as maize grain, rice, and dried fish from upcountry as the squeeze of high commodity prices takes a toll on them, mirroring a trend at the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic.
A spot check by Smart Business among cargo transport firms in Nairobi showed booming business as many households shipped in consignments of dry food from their families or farms in rural areas across Kenya to deal with the effects of a recent surge in prices of items such as maize flour.
This is replicated in many other urban areas in the country—rekindling memories of tough times between 2020 and 2021 when households hurt by the economic shocks of Covid-19 lockdowns turned to families upcountry for food support. It comes amid surges in the prices of food items such as rice, potatoes, sugar and wheat whose production is yet to recover from the prolonged dry weather last year.
Azym Dossa, managing director at transport firm Easy Coach, says there is a major surge in the shipment of food items from upcountry. The firm’s transport network mainly covers western Kenya.
“We started seeing this trend immediately after the Covid-19 pandemic hit the country in 2020. The situation got worse due to the high cost of living in Nairobi. I can tell you that in a week, we ship large consignments of foodstuffs into the city. I may not have the right numbers but what I know is that the volumes every week are huge. The items include beans, sugarcane, bananas, and maize,” he said.
Barely 100 metres from the Easy Coach office premises within the Railway station grounds in Nairobi, another giant transport firm, Ena Coach, is equally witnessing a boom in food shipments from upcountry to Nairobi and other urban centres.
A spot check at the Ena Coach parcel office on the ground floor of the KPCU Building on Sunday, June 18, 2023, confirmed a major shipment of food items.
The office floor was full of sack loads of food, including maize grain, bananas, and omena shipped in from upcountry.
“We have seen a trend where several customers are shipping foodstuffs in droves into the city from their rural villages more so in the last few months.
Most of the food items being shipped into the city includes bananas, avocados, greens, and maize, among others, mainly from Kisii,” said a representative from Encroach on condition of anonymity.
“I think it’s the high cost of living that has resulted in this new trend but some are shipping food items into Nairobi for sale purposes. They are businessmen,” he added.
Winfred Mbeche, a customer Smart Business bumped into at the Ena Coach offices, says expensive foodstuff in the city has forced many to turn to cheaper sources in the countryside.
“A two-kilogramme pack of maize grain goes for up to Sh260 in many parts of Nairobi yet, I can get the same quantity for between Sh160 and Sh180 upcountry which makes a big difference when you seek quantities to support a large household such as mine,” she says.
The shift in consumer behaviour has also registered in residential estates across Nairobi with more households turning to posho mills than buying processed flour in supermarkets.
Many households in middle-class estates such as South C, South B and Lang’ata now frequent newly built posho mills amid high prices of sifted maize flour which retail at up to Sh260 per two-kilogramme packet.
A survey report released earlier this month by the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) shows that the prices of key items would remain high at least in the short term.
“The price of maize remained stable in May 2023. However, the price of some rice varieties, beans, potatoes, sugar, and wheat remained elevated, an indication that they are yet to recover from the effects of the prolonged dry weather reported last year,” said the Central Bank of Kenya survey among agriculture sector players.
“Although farmers reported increased pasture following the long rains, both packeted and unpackaged milk prices increased marginally in May on account of the increased price of animal feeds and high transport costs.”
The price of sugar has increased significantly in the past months to retail at up to Sh220 a kilogramme due to suppressed supplies from local millers who blamed it on reduced cane deliveries and crop substitution.
“The price of rice has not benefited much from the recent harvest in Mwea due to low output arising from the protracted dry weather conditions in 2022, changing consumer preferences, and increased competition from cheaper rice imports, which have forced farmers to reduce the acreage. Other rice-producing zones such as Ahero were affected by floods,” the CBK survey added.
Milk prices also remain high following the prolonged drought from last year. For instance, the intake of milk by Kenyan households dropped to the lowest level in more than three years in March after milk prices shot up due to low production, hurting purchases in an economy subdued by inflationary pressures.
Latest data from the Kenya Dairy Board shows milk intake dropped to 52.19 million litres in March — the lowest in 40 months since October 2019, when intake reduced to just 51.3 million litres.
This marks the second consecutive monthly drop in milk intake after consumption of the drink fell from 62.08 million litres in January to 52.21 million litres in February.
Overall, milk consumption has dropped by 15.7 percent in the first three months of 2023, with total consumption reducing to 166.49 million litres compared to 197.54 million litres in the same quarter last year.
The cost of living in Kenya hit eight percent in May on soaring food, energy, and transport costs. The inflation rate stood at eight percent from 7.9 percent in April when it had declined to a 10-month low at the onset of rains. According to Kenya National Bureau of Statistics data, the price changes in food, energy, and transport, which cover about 57 percent of household budgets, peaked at 10.2 percent, 9.7 percent, and 10.1 percent, respectively.
Housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels, which make up the energy index, and transport were fuelled by an increase in the cost of petroleum products, with petrol, diesel, and kerosene prices hitting an average of Sh183.29, Sh169.10 and Sh161.83 per litre countrywide respectively.
High sugar costs compounded on the food and non-alcoholic beverages index, rising by 49.2 percent year-on-year and by 22.1 percent month over month, with a kilogramme of the sweetener averaging Sh194.29 in May from Sh159.10 in April.
