By Emmanuel Onyango
Dar es Salaam residents are having to dig deeper into their pockets to buy maize flour.
A survey carried out by The EastAfrican found that in most shops in Dar’s suburbs, the average cost of a retail price for 1kg maize flour ranges between Tsh1,500 ($0.6) and Tsh1,800 ($0.7) from between Tsh1,000 ($0.4) and Tsh1,300 ($0.5) in the previous quarter of this year.
Data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) show that in rural areas the current retail price for maize flour—consumed by the majority of citizens—has slightly increased by an average rate of between Tsh800 ($0.3) and Tsh950 ($0.4).
The price fluctuations come at a time when Tanzania has experienced bumper harvests on cereal crops during the previous 2017/2018 harvesting season.
