The average price of a kilogramme of sugar jumped to Sh166.45 in February 2025, marking a Sh5.11 rise compared to January, partly fuelled by demand pressure due to factory closures, shelved imports and factory shutdowns for routine maintenance.
Data by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) shows that sugar prices jumped 3.16 percent between January and February. A kilo of sugar sold at an average of Sh161.34 in January.
Industry players said the increased prices are due to a myriad of factors, including increased demand for the sweetener amid factory shutdowns for routine maintenance, halted imports and shaky cane supplies.
Kenya in September 2024 banned sugar imports from outside the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) and the East African Community (EAC) amid improved local production.
“There was increasing pressure on the few operational factories like Sony and Chemelil and high demand for the commodity led to a significant in sugar prices,” said Martine Dima, managing director at Sony Sugar.
Despite the increased price of sugar in February 2025, the current rates of sugar prices are 16.78 percent lower than the Sh200.01 per kilogramme recorded in February 2024.
Last year’s price increase was attributed to a global sugar shortage, worsened by India’s export ban and reduced local production due to drought conditions that led to prices reaching historic highs.
The move forced the government to allow duty-free sugar imports to bridge the domestic deficit.
The intervention resulted in a 45 percent reduction in sugar imports during the third quarter of 2024, as local production rebounded, leading to an oversupply in the market.
Consequently, sugar prices stabilised and imports declined from 162,189.1 tonnes in the third quarter of 2023 to 88,372 tonnes in the same period of 2024.
Sugar prices are set to come under more pressure after Agriculture and Livestock Development Cabinet Secretary (CS) Aden Duale gazetted the Sugar Development Levy Order, 2025 which introduced a Sugar Development Levy (SDL) on both domestic and imported sugar at 4 percent of the value of the commodity.
The SDL was scheduled to take effect on February 1, 2025 but is yet to be implemented, according to industry sources.
The gazettement of the levy came just three months after President William Ruto signed into law the Sugar Act, 2024 which gave the CS power to introduce the levy.
“There is hereby imposed a levy, as prescribed in Section 40 (1) of the Sugar Act, 2024, at the rate of four percent of the value for domestic sugar and four percent of CIF (Cost of Insurance and Freight) value on imported sugar,” said CS Duale.
Local sugar millers are required to remit the levy to the Kenya Sugar Board (KSB), the sugar regulator that was recently reintroduced through the Act, while the parastatal will collect the levy directly from sugar importers or its appointed agents.
“The levy shall be remitted to the Board not later than the tenth day of the month following the month during which the levy shall become due,” added the CS.
The sugar levy will be used to run the operations of the KSB, Kenya Sugar Research Institute (KSRI), price stabilisation for sugar growers, and infrastructure development in the sector.
The allocations from the SDL collections include 15 percent for factory development, 15 percent for research, 40 percent for cane productivity, 15 percent for infrastructure in sugarcane-producing regions, 10 percent for KSB administration, and 5 percent for sugarcane farmers’ organisations.
The KSB was recently hived off from the Agriculture and Food Authority (AFA) where it was a directorate when the Act was signed into law by the Head of State.
