Kenya produces an estimated 800,000 tonnes of sugar every year but demand stands at about a million tonnes each year leaving a deficit of 200,000 tonnes.
The shortfall is usually plugged by duty-free importation of the commodity owing to safeguards from the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa).
An oversupply of sugar in the local market slashed imports of the sweetener by nearly half in the third quarter of 2024, as the country inched close to self-sufficiency.
Data from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) shows that sugar imports fell from 162,189.1 tonnes in the third quarter of 2023 to 88,372 tonnes in the three months to September last year.
