- Kenya relies on 17 sugar millers with a total installed crushing capacity of 55,300 tonnes of cane per day.
- AFA said Kenya’s annual sugar consumption is 1.1 million metric tonnes, 950,000 metric tones of which is for household use.
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Domestic sugar production improved notably in the first quarter of 2024 to stand at 485,802 tonnes by the end of the second quarter in August resulting in a significant drop in prices.
A report by the Agriculture and Food Authority (AFA) on the local sugar industry production, however, indicates that total production recorded a consistent drop in April and May.
“This decrease is mainly attributed to Transmara and Sukari closing down for maintenance with Mumias and West Valley similarly closed for approximately two weeks to run minor maintenance," AFA explained.
"However, production rebounded in both June and July to 75,500 metric tonnes and 84,500 metric tonnes respectively, after the resumption of milling in Transmara and Sukari mills,” the report says.
The report shows that the West Kenya Sugar factory led in the production capacity in the period under review with 97,260 tonnes followed by Naitiri (65,420 tonnes); Kibos (57,000 tonnes); Butali (53,204 tonnes) followed a distant fifth by Transmara with 38,435 tonnes.
Nzoia sugar, Chemili, South Nyanza (Sony) Muhoroni and Mumias fell in the list of millers at the bottom of production with 11,605, 17,575, 16,610, 11,984 and 24,397 tonnes respectively.
Kenya relies on 17 sugar factories with a total installed crushing capacity of 55,300 tonnes of cane per day.
AFA said Kenya’s annual sugar consumption is 1.1 million metric tonnes, 950,000 metric tonnes of which is for household use translating to a monthly average consumption of 80,000 metric tonnes.
The authority said generally, sugar prices have been on a decline since the resumption of milling by all sugar factories in December 2023.
It attributed the trend to improved sugar availability in the market where production in recent months hit a high of 84,000 metric tonnes exceeding the monthly consumption by 4,000 metric tonnes.
“The increase has resulted in a significant drop on sugar prices to a low of Sh5,128 per 50Kg bag down from Sh9,500 at a similar time last year. We have also received requests for exports to other markets due to the increased production,” AFA said.
The authority said cane prices also dropped from a high of Sh6050 per tonne to the current Sh4,950.
It said in both June and July 2024, the cane price was maintained at Sh5,125 per tonne, which has been maintained from the last review done on July 4 to date.
AFA noted that cane farmers have not been comfortable with this development.
“The VAT on transport should be removed to increase the earnings by farmers,” the authority said.
In terms of sugar imports, AFA noted that there has been a significant drop partly because of the court case stopping imports and the market currently being unattractive for imports as the prices in the country are low.
The authority said 4,300 metric tonnes of brown sugar mainly from Uganda and COMESA was imported in June 2024, compared to 5,100 metric tonnes in May and 22,992 metric tonnes in April.
It said this was further drop from 24,582 metric tonnes and 28,477 metric tonnes of brown/mill white sugar imported in March and February 2024 respectively.
In January 2024 brown/mill white sugar was 35,626 metric tonnes, AFA said.