Kenya’s spending on food imports exceeds machinery by Sh61bn
Trucks loaded with imported maize from Tanzania outside Mombasa Maize Millers in Mombasa in this picture taken on 4 August 2019.
Kenya’s expenditure on food imports jumped by nearly Sh100 billion in the 12 months to September 2023, underlining the devastating impact of prolonged drought and disruptions in global supply chains on the country’s food security.
Traders splashed a record-high of Sh338.96 billion on food and beverages from abroad in the review period, compared to Sh239.98 billion in a similar period in the prior year, analysis of official data shows.
The 41.25 per cent bump came at a time when President William Ruto marked his first full year in office.
The provisional data, collated by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics, indicates the food import bill exceeded expenditure on machinery and other capital goods by Sh61.04 billion in the period. This was after expenditure on the capital goods, largely used in production processes, fell nearly Sh25.36 billion (8.36 per cent) to Sh277.92 billion in the review period.
President Ruto, who had pledged to ease the cost of living during the campaigns, took power at a time the country was undergoing the last phase of a biting drought, estimated to be the worst in four decades.
The food production crisis was compounded by high cost of farm inputs such as fertiliser largely due to the Russia-Ukraine war, which exacerbated global supply chain disruptions that were yet to fully recover from the Covid-19 pandemic shutdowns.
The fall in importation of machinery, coupled with a similar drop in non-food industrial supplies and a largely flat value of fuel imports, is a signal of a potential drop in production in key economic sectors such as manufacturing.
Economic indicators have shown production of key products dropped especially in the first half of 2023 compared with the year before. For instance, cement production reduced 4.2 per cent to 5.36 million tonnes.
The data shows value of rice imports jumped the highest, climbing 73.41 per cent to Sh59.56 billion in the review period, while expenditure on unmilled wheat rose by 35.38 per cent to Sh95.37 billion.
The value of maize grain imports, however, fell 2.06 per cent to Sh24.17 billion.
