{{Despite authorities from Uganda and Kenya recently striking a deal to allow sugar exports from the former into the latter, some trucks are still blocked from entering East Africa\u2019s biggest economy.}}<\/p>\n
The chairman of the Uganda Sugar Manufacturers Association (USMA), Jim Kabeho, said some trucks are being allowed into Kenya while others are not.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have started sugar exports, although we still have a few problems,\u201d he said on the sidelines on the sidelines of the commissioning the Non-Tariff Barriers (NTBs) Reporting System.<\/p>\n
By mid-this week, a truck was still hold up at the border Uganda-Kenya border since last week.<\/p>\n
Asked why Kenyan authorities are still blocking some of the Ugandan sugar into their market, Kabeho bluntly said: \u201cNon-Tariff Barrier. They give you one reason on a particular day, then they tell you to come back the following day. When you do, they give you another reason\u201d.<\/p>\n
Kabeho, who is also the director of the East African Business Council Uganda, was visibly upset by the blocking of entry of Ugandan exports.<\/p>\n
He accused Uganda\u2019s neighbours of protectionist tendencies.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd it is not sugar alone! Every product that we have a comparative advantage over Kenya has challenges accessing their markets.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor us, we do not mind \u2013 everything from there [Kenya] comes into our market. Uchumi and Nakumatt [supermarkets] trucks cross the border into Uganda every week,\u201d he vented.<\/p>\n
The Kenya-Uganda sugar woes started in 2011 when Uganda was experiencing unprecedented sugar shortages. In a sign of solidarity, Kenya scrapped off duty from sugar bound for the Ugandan market.<\/p>\n
But later on, the Kenyans accused Uganda of taking advantage of the situation and \u2018over-importing\u2019 \u2013 from which imported sugar was reportedly being repackaged and exported back to Kenya duty free under the auspices of the EAC Common Market protocol.<\/p>\n
Uganda has since recovered from the 2011 mess, with sugar production now up to an annual tonnage of 462,500, way clear of the domestic tonnage consumption of 300,000.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
{{Despite authorities from Uganda and Kenya recently striking a deal to allow sugar exports from the former into the latter, some trucks are still blocked from entering East Africa\u2019s biggest economy.}} The chairman of the Uganda Sugar Manufacturers Association (USMA), Jim Kabeho, said some trucks are being allowed into Kenya while others are not. \u201cWe […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2000053385,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[99],"byline":[170],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-15711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","tag-greatlakesnews","byline-igihe"],"bylines":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"contributors":[{"id":170,"name":"IGIHE","slug":"igihe","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":8}],"featured_image":{"id":2000053385,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton15711.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton15711.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton15711.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton15711.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton15711.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton15711.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15711"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15711\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000053385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15711"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=15711"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=15711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}