Business

Kenya's sugar imports jump to 8-month high

Sugar imports at the Mombasa port. (Photo: NMG)

By Ibrahim Omar | Sunday, February 4, 2024

The last time Kenya imported as much sugar was in March 2023, when imports of the sweetener hit 93,880 tonnes.

Kenya imported 90,759 tonnes of sugar in November 2023, which is the highest amount in eight months.

Data from the Sugar Directorate, which is a unit under the Agriculture and Food Authority (AFA), shows that sugar imports increased by 51.3 per cent during the months from 59,985 tonnes.

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The last time Kenya imported as much sugar was in March 2023, when imports of the sweetener hit 93,880 tonnes.

The sugar is imported by private traders, who repackage the commodity and resell it wholesale or retail to buyers.

“Sugar imports in November totalled 90,759 tonnes, 51 per cent up from 59,985 tonnes the previous month. The imports consisted of 72,116 tonnes of table sugar and 18,643 tonnes of white refined sugar,” said the directorate.

The sharp increase in sugar imports came at a time when local production remained muted due to the closure of factories.

Closed factories

The Kenyan government temporarily closed sugar factories in July for a period of four months.

This was because the factories had exhausted their sugar cane supply which means they resorted to crushing immature cane which produced lower quality and quantity of sugar.

As a result, domestic production of the commodity plummeted to just 22,736 tonnes in November from a high of 81,648 tonnes in January.

Sugar is one of the most consumed food products in the country both at household and industrial levels.

The resulting deficit meant that the country would lean deeper into the import market to get enough sugar to meet the demand for the commodity.

Due to the influx of imports, prices of sugar were reduced by an average of Sh5 per kilogramme, according to the directorate, which helped ease the cost of living.

“Retail sugar prices in November averaged Sh213 per kilo, a drop from Sh218 in October,” said the Directorate.

“The wholesale prices in November dropped to an average of Sh8,867 per 50kg bag, down 3 per cent from Sh9,145/50kg bag in October,” it added.

Further, total sugar sales made in November 2023 by local sugar millers increased by 22 per cent to 23,643 tonnes from 19,436 tonnes in October.

“Total closing stocks of sugar held by all factories as at the end of November 2023 dropped to 6,496 tonnes from 7,551 tonnes in October,” it said.

Kenya has been a net importer of sugar since the mid-1980s but the gap between production and demand has been widening over time, which has been made worse by the ineptitude of the public millers.

The country’s annual consumption of sugar stood at 1.11 million metric tonnes in 2022 against a production of 0.79 metric tonnes which led to the importation of 0.32 metric tonnes worth Sh28 billion to plug the deficit.