Kenya gets two more years to import duty-free sugar outside Comesa

Kenya has been pushed to open its market to more sugar from the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa in exchange for an extension to 2019 for the importation of duty-free sugar from outside the 19-member bloc.

During the just concluded Comesa Summit in Antananarivo, Madagascar, members successfully negotiated for Kenya to allow more sugar to be imported from the region outside the country quotas during shortages. This quota allocation criteria was backdated to August 2016 giving Comesa members who produce sugar more unfettered access into the Kenyan market.