Kenya gets more time in sugar import safeguards

Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Felix Koskei is shown the seedlings of improved sugarcane by Head of Technology Transfer at Sugar Research Institute in Kisumu James Odenya, when he visited the facility recently. [PHOTO: TITUS MUNALA/STANDARD]

Sugarcane farmers have been handed a lifeline by the Common Markets of East and Southern Africa countries (Comesa), after agreeing to extend protectionist measures aimed at shielding the sugar sector from cheaper imports.

Trade ministers from Comesa on Thursday approved a one-year extension on sugar import safeguards , following pleas by Kenya. It is the sixth extension that Kenya has won.