By Mary Karugaba and Dedan Kimathi
Cabinet will next week meet and discuss solutions to the falling commodity prices of maize, tea, cotton and other products, State Minister of Trade and Industry, David Bahati has said.
Bahati told Parliament that although the current prices for these commodities are determined by the forces of demand and supply, the Cabinet will be meeting in two weeks to resolve the problems.
“You are aware that we operate a liberalized economy where prices are determined by the invisible hand of demand and supply, which sometimes is a dirty hand. But for purposes of helping our farmers, we need to discuss this matter and come up with solutions to stabilize the prices,” he said.
Previously, Bahati said there have been proposals to provide subsidies but the Ministry of Finance has on several occasions raised concerns about it.
Bahati was responding to concerns raised by Kiboga District Woman MP Christine Kaaya over the low prices of maize grain which has fallen to sh600 per kilo in recent days from sh1500 per kilogram last year and asked the government to quickly intervene and stabilize the prices by offering subsidies.
Statistics by the Uganda Bureau of Statistics for December 2023 indicate that as a result of low prices of maize and other goods, the inflation rate of commodity prices declined from 31.5% in December 2023 to 31.1 in January 2024.
