Sugar shipped from Uganda grew 30 times in February compared
with the same period last year in what the sector regulator attributed
to a sharp decline of the cheap variety of the commodity locally.
The
volumes imported from Uganda hit 12,000 tonnes in two months to
February from a low of 400 tonnes in corresponding period last year.
The
head of the Sugar Directorate Solomon Odera said imports from Uganda
were last year affected by an influx of a cheap sugar from Brazil. The
Ugandan commodity could not compete favourably in the market because of
it is expensive.
“The overflow from 2017 of cheap sugar
into 2018 made traders reluctant to seek import permits to ship in the
commodity as they could make losses on account of excessive cheap
Brazilian commodity,” said Mr Odera.
Annual quantities
By
the end of 2017, Mr Odera said Kenya had in excess of 300,000 tonnes of
sugar, which was way above the required volumes. This is an equivalent
of the annual quantities that Kenya is allowed to import from the Common
Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa).
However, with the sharp decline of imported volumes and reduced
local production, traders are now shipping in more of the Ugandan sugar
into the country.
In February Comesa countries provided
16,740 tonnes of sugar while the EAC shipped 6,128 tonnes (all being
from Uganda), whereas the rest of the world countries’ imports were
4,507 tonnes.
Increased volumes from Uganda can also be
attributed to Tanzania’s move in banning the imports of the commodity
from Uganda, leaving Kenya to enjoy all the surplus from the
neighbouring state.
“Uganda has had surplus stocks this
year and that is why they had to export huge quantities to the country
compared with last year,” said the regulator.
Kenya
opened the window for duty-free sugar last year to allow the importation
of the commodity outside the regional market to address the shortage
occasioned by scarcity in 2017.
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