Everything you might want to ask.

Can't find the answer? Email hello@commodityhub.co.ke or message us on WhatsApp during market hours.

Getting started

What is CommodityHub East Africa?: A daily commodity price platform covering nine Kenyan markets and 19 active commodities (41 in the regional reference set, monthly cadence) — including food (maize, beans, rice, potatoes, onions, tomatoes, sugar, cooking oil), construction (cement, sand, ballast, steel bars, timber, iron sheets), and livestock. You can check prices on the web, on WhatsApp, on SMS, on USSD, and (soon) on Android.
Do I need to sign up to see prices?: No. Daily look-ups are free and require no account. Open the price book and start browsing. An account is only needed if you want personalised alerts, history, or a paid subscription.
Where is CommodityHub available?: At launch: Nakuru, Nairobi, Eldoret, Kisumu, Mombasa, Kisii, Kitale, Meru, and Karatina — covering Kenya's main grain and construction corridors. Cross-border data (Busia, Malaba, Namanga, Isebania) and one Ugandan and one Tanzanian town follow in Q4 2026.

Understanding the prices

Where do these prices come from?: Four layered sources: paid field monitors who visit assigned markets daily, direct dealer and warehouse partnerships, verified crowdsourced submissions from traders and contractors, and institutional feeds from RATIN, county agriculture offices, and large millers. Every published price is traceable to at least one named source.
How often are prices updated?: Each of the 19 active commodities is updated at least five days per week in at least six of the nine target towns. High-volume markets (Nairobi Wakulima, Mombasa Kongowea, Eldoret Grain) typically see multiple updates per day. The last-updated timestamp on every price tells you exactly when it landed.
What's a confidence score?: A number from 0–100 attached to every price, computed from the count of corroborating sources, source reputation, recency, and variance from the 30-day rolling average. Prices with a score below 75 don't publish — they go to staff review instead. The three-bar indicator on each row tells you whether a price is high (3 bars), medium (2), or just-passed (1) confidence.
What's the difference between wholesale and retail?: Wholesale prices are quoted at major depots and grain markets, usually for bag- or lorry-sized quantities. Retail is what you'd pay at a hardware store or a market stall, in smaller units. Both are tagged on every row.
Why is the price I saw at my market different from what you show?: A few common reasons: different grade or quality (maize at 14% moisture vs 18%, cement 32.5N vs 42.5N), different unit (a 90-kg bag vs a 50-kg bag), wholesale vs retail, or a price that's moved since our last update. If you think we're publishing something wrong, publish what you saw — corroboration is how the system gets better.
Why are some prices in KES and others in USD?: Local retail and wholesale prices are quoted in KES. Some export-bound and FOB-quoted commodities (coffee, tea, cloves) are customarily traded in USD; we follow the convention. Each row shows its currency explicitly.

Using the platform

How do I check prices on WhatsApp?: Send a natural-language question — "maize price Nakuru today", "cement Kisii", or "what's potatoes going for in Eldoret" — to our official WhatsApp channel. The first reply is instant. You can also subscribe to a daily price digest from any plan.
How do I use the SMS short code?: From any mobile network in Kenya, text PRICE [commodity] [town] to 21x40. Example: PRICE MAIZE NKR. You'll receive the latest verified price within ten seconds. Standard SMS rates apply (typically KES 1).
How do I use the USSD menu?: Dial *xxx# from any phone — feature phones included — and follow the menu. USSD is free; no data, no minutes consumed. Available on Safaricom and Airtel via our MNO partnership.
When does the Android app launch?: Q2 2026, on the Google Play Store. It adds offline cache (so the last-seen prices remain visible without a connection), push alerts, and a quicker browse experience tuned for trader use in markets where 3G coverage is patchy. iOS is on the roadmap but unscheduled.
Can I save the markets and commodities I care about?: Yes — sign in, and we'll add a "Watchlist" pinned to your dashboard. You can pin any combination of commodity + market. Free accounts can pin up to 5; Trader and above are unlimited.
How do alerts work?: Pick a commodity + market, set a threshold (above, below, or percentage move), pick a channel (push, WhatsApp, SMS, email). We notify you the moment the next verified price crosses the threshold. Trader plan and above can set up to 50 alerts.

Contributing & data quality

I'm a trader / farmer / dealer — can I submit prices?: Yes. Any signed-in account can publish a price. Submissions are weighted by your reputation score and corroborated against other sources before they reach the public feed. Reliable contributors earn premium-tier credits as a thank-you.
How do I become a field monitor?: Field monitors are paid part-time roles, recruited from each launch town and trained on the data-collection protocol. We recruit in waves of 2–3 per town as the network grows. Email monitors@commodityhub.co.ke with your town, the markets you frequent, and any commodity specialism.
How does the reputation system work?: Every contributor has a score from 0–100 based on how often their submissions are corroborated by other sources, how close they track the rolling average, and how often their prices are later flagged for review. New contributors start at 50; consistent reliability moves you up, repeated anomalies move you down. Scores above 80 grant priority weighting in the confidence algorithm.
Can prices be corrected after they're published?: Yes — but the original is preserved for transparency. A correction creates a new submission tagged as a correction; both rows remain in the history, with the correction taking precedence in the public view. Staff review confirms every correction.

Subscriptions & billing

What's included in each plan?: Free: daily look-ups, 7-day history, basic WhatsApp queries. Trader (KES 499/mo): 90-day history, cross-market spreads, dailydigest (Coming Q3 2026), custom alerts. Contractor (KES 1,999/mo): all the aboveplus 5-seat accounts (Coming Q3 2026), construction spread reports, bulk quotes, CSV exports. Enterprise (from KES 25,000/mo): API & customdashboards (Coming Q4 2026), historical exports (10-year Coming Q4 2026), white-label reports. Compare tiers.
What payment methods do you accept?: M-Pesa STK push for KES billing (instant, no card needed), and Visa / Mastercard for KES or USD billing. Enterprise contracts can be invoiced directly with bank transfer.
Can I pay annually?: Yes — annual billing is two months free (you pay for ten months, get twelve). Available on Trader and Contractor tiers.
How do I upgrade or downgrade?: From your account dashboard, change tier any time. Upgrades take effect immediately and are pro-rated. Downgrades take effect at the end of your current billing period; you keep the higher tier until then.
How do I cancel?: From your account dashboard, in one click — no email required, no retention call. You keep access until the end of your paid period.

Account, data & privacy

What data do you collect?: For free accounts: email, role (trader / farmer / etc.), and the commodities and markets you view. For paid accounts: additionally, billing details and subscription history. For contributors: submission history and reputation score.
Is my data sold to anyone?: No. Aggregated, anonymised data is licensed to institutional customers (banks, insurers, government), but never any personally identifiable information. Per the Data Protection Act, 2019 we are registered with the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner.
Can I export my data?: Yes — from your account dashboard, any time, in CSV or JSON.
Can I delete my account?: Yes — from your account dashboard. Your account and any personally-identifying data are removed within seven days. Anonymised submission history remains, since corrections and corroborations elsewhere in the data depend on it.

For institutions

How does API access work?: On the Enterprise tier you get a token, a base URL, and a documented REST endpoint that mirrors the price book. Typical integrations: bank credit-scoring models, index-based insurance pricing, miller procurement systems, donor / NGO food-security dashboards. Contact partners@commodityhub.co.ke to discuss scope and pricing.
Can I get historical data?: Yes — up to a 10-year rolling export on Enterprise. Useful for seasonality modelling, basis-risk analysis, and policy work. Bulk historical files are delivered weekly via signed S3 URLs.
Can I get a white-label data feed?: Yes. Enterprise customers can subscribe to a branded daily market report or embed our price widgets in their own platform under your branding. Standard contract terms include source attribution and a transparent confidence-score disclosure.

Other

How can I contact support?: Email hello@commodityhub.co.ke for anything not covered here. We respond within one business day. For urgent data corrections, message us on WhatsApp at the number on every page — that's the fastest route during market hours.
Is the platform working right now?: All systems operational. We publish uptime and incident reports on status.commodityhub.co.ke (page coming Q2).