Meat products supplier Farmer’s choice has reduced the volume of pig feeds that it sells to it’s farmers by 32 percent due to high cost of ingredients. The shortage has led the firm to cut weekly supply from 220 tonnes to 150 tonnes. The company sells feeds as part of quality assurance strategy owing to fake products in the market.

The firm wrote a letter to farmers lamenting how the market situation continues to deteriorate with scarcity and high price of wheat pollard and wheat bran persisting which has seen market price rise threefold since January.

“Despite our best efforts to increase/maintain our sales volumes, there has been no change in the feed raw material situation… it is in light of this crisis that I regret to confirm that our weekly sales volumes at Kasarani will decrease from the current 220 tonnes to 150 tonnes effective October 4,” said Sharon Tsigadi, a General Manager at Farmer’s Choice.

Ms Tsigadi hopes on duty-free GMO maize to help the situation. The company will revert back to unrestricted sales volumes as soon as they can stock up on raw materials. The government allowed the importation of GMO maize as a remedy for high cost of animal feeds.

Association of Kenya Feed Manufacturers (AKEFEMA) petitioned the government to allow duty-free importation of GMO yellow maize and Soya as a remedy for the high cost of raw materials.