E-commerce operator Jumia says Kenyans order more chicken on its online trading platform as price cuts steam up competition for food deliveries.

Jumia said data indicates that Kenyans shopping online also ordered for pizza, the second most popular food for a country whose staple is ugali.

The Jumia Food Index report 2019 indicates that burgers moved from fifth most popular cuisine in 2017, to third in 2019 while Indian food lost popularity but is still fifth in ranking.

The top three cuisines with potential for growth are Indian, Ethiopian and Thai.

“Drivers of growth for food deliveries, are affordability, awareness, and geographic availability, this was attributed to restaurants increasingly offering meals at lower prices that are below Ksh.300," Jumia Food Kenya On-Demand Services, Managing Director East Africa, Shreenal Ruparelia, said.

She, however, noted dinner deliveries dropped from 60 percent in 2017 to 54.2 percent in 2019 according to the data collected.

Breakfast and lunch are becoming more popular with the former, having grown to 4.6 percent in 2019 compared to 3.8 percent in 2017. Lunch is at 41.1 percent in 2019 up from 36.2 percent in 2017.

The Jumia Food Index report also indicated taste profiles are different in different cities in Kenya. In Nairobi, chicken, pizza, and burger were cited as the most popular items while in Mombasa, customers preferred continental cuisines followed by chicken and pizza.