Browsing: Dr Andrew Karanja

sugar imports Comesa and EAC
  • This ban is poised to protect domestic farmers and help stabilise the local sugar industry, which has been wobbly due to unchecked imports and poor management of millers.
  • Kenya projects local sugar factories could produce over 800,000 metric tonnes in 2024, an uptick from the previous year.
  • On average, Kenya consumes about 950,000 metric tonnes of sugar annually.

In a sweet deal fashioned to bolster local sugar producers, Kenya has imposed an immediate freeze on sugar imports from outside regional markets: The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and the East African Community (EAC).

The decision comes at a time when East Africa’s largest economy is projecting a bumper harvest of sugarcane in its sugarbelt across Rift Valley, Nyanza and Western areas. This ban is poised to protect domestic farmers and help stabilize the local sugar industry, which for years has been wobbly due to unchecked imports and …