Sugar imports in the nine months to September increased 376 per cent compared with last year.
Latest market report from the Sugar Directorate indicates the imported volumes went up to 933,844 tonnes against 219,118 in corresponding period last year.
Sugar imports in the nine months to September increased 376 per cent compared with last year as Kenya raised volumes to protect consumers from higher cost arising from local shortage.
Latest market report from the Sugar Directorate indicates the imported volumes went up to 933,844 tonnes against 219,118 in corresponding period last year.
This marks the first time in the last five years the country has imported huge volumes of sugar, underpinning the severe shortage.
“The increase in table sugar imports is attributed to amplified shortfall due to low local sugar production in the country,” says the directorate.
The directorate said the country had in August amassed sugar stocks to run for the next five months, raising hopes for stable prices for the rest of the year.
The increased imports, mainly from Brazil, helped pull down sugar prices to about Sh100-110 a kilo from a high of Sh200 per kilo in May.
The regulator says traders and millers imported 300,000 tonnes of sugar in August alone as the duty waiver on cheap sugar from Brazil was about to come to an end.
The country consumes about 50,000 tonnes of sugar monthly with this figure expected to rise in the coming years due to a growing population. Sugar production dropped 49 per cent between January and September as factories grappled with cane shortage.
The September report from the directorate indicates quantities produced dropped to 252,415 from 493,419 tonnes in the corresponding period last year thanks to dry weather.
Kenya produces about 600,000 tonnes a year, compared with annual consumption of 870,000 tonnes.
The sugar deficit is usually covered by stringently controlled imports from Comesa.
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