Kenya: West Kenya Sugar Urges Import Curbs As Local Production Rises

Kenya: West Kenya Sugar Urges Import Curbs As Local Production Rises

Nairobi -- West Kenya Sugar Company has urged Parliament to adopt a formal policy linking sugar imports to domestic production, arguing that imports should be reduced whenever local output improves to protect farmers, millers and rural livelihoods.

Government freezes issuance of new sugar import licences

Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe has directed the Kenya Sugar Board to stop issuing new sugar import licences on account of sufficient local production. Accoridng to Kagwe, Kenya currently has enough stock of sugar to meet domestic demand without disrupting the local market. “I have asked the Kenya Sugar Board to stop sugar imports. Henceforth, I do not want any license issued for sugar imports. As at now, what we have produced is suff…

Sugar cane farmers take fight to Treasury as imports surge

Growers from KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga gathered outside Treasury’s offices on 27 July to call for the urgent gazetting of a revised sugar import tariff. They said delays in updating the tariff mechanism have left the local industry exposed to heavily subsidised imports from countries such as Brazil, India, and Thailand. The protest followed the release of figures showing that sugar imports between January and May this year were almost double …