KENYA – The government of Kenya has issued licenses to traders to import sugar from outside the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) after stocks of the product run out in the region.

President William Ruto aims to use the imports to lower sugar prices in two weeks even as the country’s Cabinet is next week set to discuss drastic reforms to revive the ailing sugar sub-sector.

As of today, all sugar millers have stopped operations temporarily, for about three months to allow sugarcane to regenerate.

The situation on status of cane maturity will be reviewed after two months with a view to resuming operations at the earliest possible opportunity.

Dr. Ruto said the government has been at pains to strike a delicate balance between protecting sugarcane farmers from cheap sugar imports and reducing prices for consumers as the shortage of cane has curtailed local production.

“Now that we have ascertained that there isn’t a sufficient supply of sugar in the COMESA area, we [are looking elsewhere around the world] and we expect fresh stocks of sugar to come into the country [within the next one or two weeks],” added the President.

Sugar coming in from other parts of the world attracts at least 50 percent duty under the East African Community’s common external tariff.

The external tariff could also affect the prices of the commodity if was imported from the trading block, as it is usual.

The Sugar Directorate has locked out sugar millers from importation to prevent a situation witnessed in 2017 where millers abandoned buying sugarcane from farmers and concentrated on repackaging and selling imported sugar.

Kenya’s sugar consumers have been faced with high prices that skyrocketed at alarming rates. A spot check by Nation media group at some retail outlets in Nairobi last week showed sugar prices were retailing at between Sh225 and Sh250 per kilogramme. For a two-kilogram packet, retailers were selling the sweetener between Sh460 and Sh490.

In the duty-free sugar imports window, the government allowed traders to import 100,000 tonnes of sugar from outside COMESA for three months, ended March 2023.

It then decided to import 180,000 more metric tons of sugar to cushion consumers against the skyrocketing prices of the products after the duty-free sugar failed to curb soaring prices.

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