Sugar prices now rise by 30 percent a kilo as manufacturing companies grapple with hitches in machines and their routine maintenance.Chemelil and Kibos sugar mills broke down, leading to a huge backlog of cane to be processed.
A kilo of sugar that retailed at 200 shillings now stands at 230 shilling at the supermarket and retails at 240shilligs at retail shops.
Agriculture Principal Secretary Hamadi Boga, says that most factories are in maintenance, impacting on the cost of production.
The closure of factories due to the breakdown of machines, led to over 1400 tonnes of canes from the farmers queue in weigh bridges and farms
The shortage has seen wholesalers increase the cost of a 50- kilogramme bag from Sh4,500 previously to Sh4,800 attributing the rise to a tight supply in the market.
The rise in prices comes at a time when the country has limited cheap imports, from Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) to protect growers from the competition.
The Ministry of Agriculture in the new quota rules for each country will see millers allowed to import only 210,163 tonnes of the commodity this year from the usual 350,000 tonnes that the country is normally allocated under the Comesa window.