KENYA – In February alone, Kenya imported 22% more sugar, averaging 28,609 MT compared to 22,722 MT in January 2023, to supplement its local production, which had a drop, according to data from the Sugar Directorate.
Cheap sugar imports from India and Madagascar have helped to ease the runaway price of the commodity in Kenya, as traders avoided sourcing the sweetener from expensive markets.
The total sugar produced in the country was 67,451 MT, a decrease from the previous month’s total of 81,488 MT.
This drop in prices led to the country importing 8,740 tonnes of table sugar in February with India and Madagascar, accounting for at least 80 percent of the total imports.
CIF Mombasa landed values for both imported white refined and mill white/brown sugar averaged at Kshs. 74,544/tonne, which is 4% lower than the value of Kshs. 77,873/tonne witnessed in January.
Business Daily cites the directorate, saying that a tonne of sugar from Madagascar landed in Kenya at Sh65,536 with that from India getting to Mombasa at Sh72,672 down from Sh75,000 in January.
The media house noted that traders avoided expensive source markets such as Egypt and Uganda, where a month earlier they had procured a tonne of the commodity at Sh84,356 and Sh101,562, respectively.
In the same month, the wholesale sugar price mean price was Kshs. 5,922 per 50kg bag, down 11% from Ksh 6,663 in January 2023.
The retail average sugar price for 1 kg also had a slight reduction in pricing, selling at Kshs 147 from Kshs 155 recorded in the previous month, the Directorate highlights.
The directorate expects the retail price of the commodity to plummet in the coming weeks as more of the cheap commodity arrives in the country.
The government opened an import window in December that would see traders ship in 100,000 tonnes of sugar outside of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) region to curb an imminent shortage in the country that had pushed up the cost of the sweetener to Sh312 for a 2-kilogram packet.
The first two vessels with over 42,000 tonnes of sugar docked last month at the port of Mombasa, easing the pressure on the local millers.
With the multi-billion investments channeled to the sector, including the setting up of new milling plants and refurnishing the existing ones, the country could achieve self-sufficiency in sugar production in the coming years.
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