Uganda farmers pay price of duty-free sugar policy

sugar

Workers wait to offload sacks of imported Kakira Sugar from Uganda aboard MV-Satnam after it docked at Kisumu, Kenya. PHOTO | FILE | NMG

The duty-free sugar import window that some East African Community (EAC) member states enjoy to plug local sugar deficit is blamed for the sharp drop in prices in Uganda.

At the beginning of the 2023/24 financial year, the EAC Secretariat gave Rwanda, Tanzania and Kenya the greenlight to import tax-free sugar to plug their domestic deficits. But the measure has sharply eaten into Uganda’s regional sugar export market.