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Comesa to rule on Kenya bid for 2-year sugar imports extension limits Saturday

Wednesday, October 12, 2016 — updated on December 22, 2020 - 3 min read

Sugar imports being offloaded at the port. Kenya produces about 600,000 tonnes of sugar a year, compared with annual consumption of 800,000 tonnes. PHOTO | FILE

Kenya will on Saturday know whether the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) will approve its application seeking a further two-year extension of sugar import limits from a regional trade bloc to give it more time to overhaul its ailing sugar sector.

The intergovernmental committee, a technical wing of Comesa that is meeting in Madagascar, has recommended that Kenya be given a two-year extension to limit the amount of sugar that comes into the country from member states.

Kenya produces about 600,000 tonnes of sugar a year, compared with annual consumption of 800,000 tonnes. The deficit is covered by strictly controlled imports.
Experts have blamed the high cost of production for the problems facing Kenya’s sugar industry. Poorly funded government factories have aging machinery prone to break downs. Kenya produces a tonne of sugar at $800 compared to countries like Egypt at $500.
Agriculture and Food Authority (AFA) director-general Alfred Busolo, who is leading the Kenya sugar delegation, says that they are pushing for the two- year extension to allow the country to put its house in order. “We want to use the extension of the safeguard to agree on privatisation road map and court issues on the same. We also want to use this period to implement a seed cane policy on improved yields and policy,” said Mr Busolo.
Kenya is required to, among other things, privatise State-owned millers, diversify the revenue chain, transit to using early maturing cane, and move away from the current tonnage-based payment for sugar cane to one that is linked to sucrose content in the cane delivered.