Manufacturers of cooking oil in the country are warning Kenyans of a looming shortage of the commodity, as well as increased prices amid Indonesia’s ban of palm oil exports.
The world’s biggest palm oil producer announced that it will ban exports from Thursday, threatening the availability of the already-pricey oils including palm oil, soy oil, sunflower oil and rapeseed oil.
Pwani Oil Commercial Director Rajul Malde said the only solace they have is that the ban is now only restricted to by-products and derivatives of palm oil and not crude. If that news is confirmed, they should be okay in terms of supply, if not, they are in for a rough ride in terms of availability, forget about pricing.
Malde added that they have been forced to raise retail prices of cooking oil by 35 percent since February due to the 45 percent increase in the cost of importing palm oil into the country.
Kenya mainly imports vegetable oils such as sunflower oils, soybean, corn oil, and crude palm oil from Malaysia and Indonesia, but weak production over the last six months in Malaysia due to floods and labor shortages has seen Kenya resort to Indonesia’s palm oil.
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