Agri processing is often referred to as one of the most promising areas for many African countries to develop their economies. In this project, africon was tasked to prioritise countries and sectors to (in a next stage) efficiently identify potential customers for a client. The sugar industry, as one of the evaluated industries, scored a “medium” potential for our client – though the image varies across the region. While many East African countries have sugar producing industries, only Ethiopia has over the recent years registered significant growth in sugar output and might continue to do so over the next 2-3 years. On the other hand, many sugar mills in the region suffer from high production costs and dwindling or stagnating output. Through the results and the continuation of this project, we will not only identify the most promising first customers for our client in East Africa, but we will also provide direction for future sales efforts in the region.

1. 19/06/2020 1© africon GmbH 2020
Sources:NationalStatisticsAgencies(2020),NationalSugarBoards(2019/2020),africonexpertinterview(2020)
The sugar industry in East Africa
Kenya is East Africa‘s largest sugar producer, but
production levels have remained stagnant at best.
Local value chain (schematic)
Sugar cane (local plantations) Milling
White & brown sugar
(~70% local production, 30%
imports)
Sale to domestic and regional
customers
Industry size (sugar production, thousands of TPA, 2018)
Note: local demand is not 100% covered by local production. Imports take place.
Inputs Local processing Outputs
11
25
333
360
397
593
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700
Rwanda
Burundi
Tanzania
Uganda
Ethiopia
Kenya
Recent trend
(past 3-5 years)