Unga Limited has reduced the price of baking flour for large consumers by four per cent.

The reduction was effective yesterday. Large consumers are generally bakers whose orders are more than 150 bags.

Speaking on the telephone, the general manager, Mr Kareithi Murage Murimi, said the move was made necessary by the fact that the price of bread was beyond the reach of poor Kenyans.

He hoped the price reduction would translate in reduction of the price of bread.

Mr Murimi said internal inefficiencies raised the costs for local manufactures.

He said the inefficient railway system had forced local manufacturers to transport their produce by road.

This raised the price per bale of maize flour by Sh45 and of wheat flour by Sh37.40.

He also raised the issue of capacity under-utilisation.

The country's firms were milling only 45 per cent of their capacity for wheat.

This also loads some cost on the price of the product.

The installed capacity is 1.5 million tonnes a year while the demand for wheat flour is 680 thousand tonnes.

He said inefficiency at the port of Mombasa costs farmers and millers an extra $15 per tonne in port charges.

It costs $10 per tonne and 1.5 days to clear wheat in Singapore while it costs up to $41 and takes more than seven days in Kenya.

This was mainly due to lack of equipment to move cargo from the port area to the storage points and onwards to the importer.

Mr Murimi called on manufacturers to come together and press for proper management of the infrastructure.

Management of the road network, for example, should be delinked from the government and privatised.

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