The East Africa Community (EAC) has unveiled new plans to lower fertiliser prices, a critical farming input, following the failure of previous interventions by the Government of Kenya to yield a significant impact in line with prices in international markets. According to a notice from the Competition Authority of Kenya (CAK) published in the Gazette Notice on Friday, the East African Community (EAC) announced plans to invite public participation in its new efforts to reduce fertiliser prices. The exercise will be done on behalf of the EAC Competition Authority by the CAK and will invite several market stakeholders and Kenyan farmers to help provide feedback on how the price reductions could be achieved. ''The high prices are detrimental to the farmers, and to governments which have chosen to subsidize fertilizer prices.
Furthermore, there are high levels of market concentration, behavioural practices, and high barriers to entry, among others,'' CAK stated. A hand holding fertiliser Photo Canva ''Thus, it necessitates competition assessment of this market in the EAC region, specifically in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.'' The EAC Competition Authority noted that it was concerned after fertiliser prices, which spiked in 2021 globally, failed to drop in local markets in recent months despite a significant drop being recorded globally. "Fertilizer prices across the region increased along with international prices in late 2021.
However, they have not reduced in line with the prices in international markets," read the notice in part.
The government outlined several strategies aimed at reducing fertiliser prices.
