Saudi Arabia tops the scales of imports

What you need to know:

  • Former Kenya Sugar Board CEO Rosemary Mkok says the country has the potential to produce its own refined sugar. “The demand is high. Miwani had a refinery but it was shut down 20 years ago.
  • This year alone, Kenya has imported 54,764 tonnes of refined sugar, which is normally used for industrial purposes such as preparation of soft drinks and confectionery.

Kenya has no single factory that manufactures refined sugar despite the demand for the commodity being high. The country imports more than 180,000 tonnes of industrial sugar annually.

Former Kenya Sugar Board CEO Rosemary Mkok says the country has the potential to produce its own refined sugar. “The demand is high. Miwani had a refinery but it was shut down 20 years ago. We promote farmers in other countries and forget our own,” she said.

A Government report seen by Sunday Nation shows Saudi Arabia exported most of the refined sugar into the country in the first half of this year. Though not known for cane farming, Saudi Arabia exported 25,361 tonnes of the sugar to Kenya.

Saudi Arabia has been investing in sugar refineries and is one of the world’s largest importers of sugar. This year alone, it launched two new refinery projects in a bid to dominate the refined sugar market.

Another country that has been bringing in large quantities of refined sugar is South Africa — over 400,000 tonnes since 2005.

The country has some of the biggest refineries in Kwazulu Natal.

Kenya has many sugar manufacturing industries but none processes refined sugar.

This year alone, Kenya has imported 54,764 tonnes of refined sugar, which is normally used for industrial purposes such as preparation of soft drinks and confectionery.

Importers of refined sugar are allowed to bring in the commodity under a duty-free scheme given by the Treasury.

Last year, according to the data, Kenya imported 101,262 tonnes of the commodity.

Besides Saudi Arabia, Egypt and South Africa are the other major exporters of the commodity to Kenya.

The data shows that Saudi Arabia became Kenya’s top exporter in 2009, a position it retained in 2010 before ceding it to Egypt for the next two years.

Saudi Arabia regained the top spot last year.

Kenya also consumes sugar originating from Thailand, United Kingdom, France and India.