Mwea rice stocks begin moving, but many farmers are still unpaid

Mwea Rice Growers Multipurpose Cooperative Society (MRGM) Chairman Ndege Muriuki said the government is currently buying about 2,000 bags of milled rice each day from the cooperative's stores.

Muriuki on Friday said the cooperative is also engaging private millers to increase milling capacity, with operations now running around the clock to speed up processing. He said the volume of rice in storage had delayed payments to farmers, despite an earlier commitment that they would be paid in June.

"There were more than 50,000 bags of unsold rice before the government intervened, and the third harvest is already coming in," he said.

He said the cooperative expects all the rice currently in its stores to be purchased by next week.

The purchases come as the High Court on Thursday certified as urgent a petition challenging the duty-free importation of 490,000 tonnes of rice and ordered the government to disclose all documents related to the imports within seven days.

Farmers in Mwea are preparing to plant for the main growing season even as the third harvest is being received, with many expressing concern that imported rice could depress prices for locally produced pishori rice.

Farmers selling through private millers said they want the government to prioritise purchasing locally produced rice before allowing further imports.

"They should buy all the rice in private mills before they import," farmers Pius Njogu and Evan Murimi said.

Large quantities of rice remain in storage across the scheme. While purchases from MRGM are ongoing, farmers who stored their harvest with private millers said uptake has been slower. Some millers have blamed the planned rice imports for slowing demand for locally produced rice.