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By:
EMOJONG OSERE | |||||||||
| Posted:
Dec,25-2016 16:48:53
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A sugar crisis in Uganda is heavily impacting on Kenyan traders and consumers who may be forced to dig dipper into their pockets to acquire the product.
Ugandan media reported on Friday that a drop in sugar production in the country, due to drought, had resulted in a price increase of about 40 per cent.
The prices increased from USh3,500 (about Sh100) a kilogramme to USh5,000 (about Sh170), a rise they also attributed to hoarding by traders.
Kenyans mostly likely to be affected by the rise are those living along the border counties of Bungoma, Busia, Migori and Siaya.
Most retail shops along the Kenya-Uganda border rely on cheap sugar imports from Uganda.
In the border towns of Busia and Malaba, a kilogramme of sugar currently retails at Sh120.
"With the unfolding scenario in Uganda they could be forced to raise the price further to unbearable levels," Malaba town businessman Altaf Bachu said in an interview.
A 2kg sugar pack from Nzoia Sugar Company presently retails at Sh270 in Busia and Malaba town supermarkets. Mumias Sugar Company packs are being sold at Sh285.
In 2015, Uganda produced 418,882 metric tonnes of sugar, 31,299 of which were exported to Kenya, Rwanda and Southern Sudan.
Kenyan consumers at the Busia and Malaba borders have for long relied on cheap Ugandan sugar for use in hotels and homes.
Sugar producers in Uganda said the increase in prices has affected their profit margins. Malaba Uganda businesswoman Angela Nyachuo said: “Consumers are not buying the sugar because of the hiked prices." There were reports last year that Kenya had entered into a sugar imports deal with Uganda. Cord leader Raila Odinga termed as "dangerous and reckless" some of the trade deals signed by Presidents Uhuru Kenyatta and Yoweri Museveni (Uganda). He said allowing cheaper Ugandan sugar into the Kenyan market will kill the country's sugar industry. Raila also claimed some of the Kenyatta-Museveni deals such as exporting beef and dairy products to Uganda could have been influenced by private business interests. But the President responded to the backlash, saying he "would rather import sugar from Uganda than Brazil". Uhuru said the new deal with Uganda was key to addressing Kenya's shortfall as the product was cheaper there, and that this more reasonable than importing from overseas. | |||||||||
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