Despite Duty-Free Imports, Kenya's Retail Prices for Sugar Remain High.

Duty-free sugar imports, which Kenya began to accept in January, have not been able to reduce high retail prices. Local production has been hampered by farmers' declining cane supplies. Due to millers' struggles with the limited supply of cane, the sugar directorate's suggested price for a tonne of the product has increased from Ksh4,584 ($33.58) to Ksh5,250 ($38.46).

The total amount of sugar bagged in the review period fell by 26% to 49,761 tonnes as a result of companies' reduced ability to produce sugar due to a drop in the supply of cane to those facilities. The market's limited supply will force demand as manufacturing declines. Beyond ComesaIn order to lessen the pain of the local millers' decline in production, the first two vessels docked in February carrying more than 42,000 tonnes of sugar.

In order to stop an impending shortage in the nation that had driven up the price of the sweetener to Ksh312 ($2.29) for a two-kilo packet, the government opened an import window in December that would allow traders to ship in 100,000 tonnes of sugar from outside the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) region.