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Kenya says it will meet sugar safety net terms

sugar

A man shops for sugar. FILE PHOTO | NMG

Kenya is confident of meeting all the terms of a deal that extended its special safeguards on duty-free sugar imports from the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) until 2019.

Head of the Sugar Directorate Solomon Odera said the country has met three of the four conditions.

“We presented what we have done so far and we undertook to meet all the conditions by 2019 when the safeguards come to an end,” he said in reference to a mandatory progress report filled with a technical committee of Comesa for review by its Council of ministers in November.

Kenya was given a two- year extension to protect the country from cheap sugar from Comesa member states as it carries reforms on its sugar sector to address high cost of production.

The cost of producing sugar in Kenya is about $800 (Sh82, 000) per tonne compared with a country like Egypt where the cost is $400(Sh41,200).