Kenya:2017 sugarcane deliveries fall 35pc as more shortages expected

Tractors deliver cane at a sugar factory in western Kenya. file photo | nmg 

By GERALD ANDAE

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Summary

• Sugarcane delivered to the factories dropped from 7.1 million tonnes in 2016 to 4.6 million tonnes last year.
• The move led to low production of sugar in factories, leading to higher local prices in the first six months of 2017, before the government intervened through imports to curb the rising cost.
• The decline was occasioned by dry weather in sugar growing zones, which saw cane perform poorly in the period under review.

Cane deliveries to factories dropped 35 per cent in 2017 compared with the previous year, highlighting the deficit of raw material that saw millers operate below their installed capacity.

Data report from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) indicates the cane delivered to the factories dropped from 7.1 million tonnes in 2016 to 4.6 million tonnes last year.

The move led to low production of sugar in factories, leading to higher local prices in the first six months of 2017, before the government intervened through imports to curb the rising cost.

The decline was occasioned by dry weather in sugar growing zones, which saw cane perform poorly in the period under review.

According to the Sugar Directorate, production dropped 45 per cent in nine months to November last year as factories grappled with the shortage of raw material to mill with the sale of the commodity falling by almost similar margin.

Industry report from the directorate indicated the quantities produced dropped to 327,886 tonnes in the first 11 months of last year from 593,666 tonnes in corresponding period the previous year.

“This low production is attributed to the prevailing cane shortage in most cane growing zones,” said the report.

READ: Shortage of cane cuts sugar production 49 per cent

Sugar sales from factories also dropped by 44 per cent in what is attributed to low production by local factories.

The Agriculture and Food Authority (AFA) has projected a decline in production this year with the volumes expected to drop from 300,000 tonnes of sugar in 2017 to 200,000 tonnes by the end of June.

The decline will be precipitated by insufficient cane to mill as the raw material is expected to drop from three million tonnes in the last financial year to two million tonnes in the current fiscal year.

The Treasury scrapped duty on imported sugar from outside the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) in May last year following a severe shortage of raw material locally.

The move saw sugar imports increase by 196 per cent in 2017 compared with the previous year as traders rushed to ship in duty-free commodity to bridge the local deficit.