Pwani oil has shut down operations temporarily due to the shortage of the dollars that has made it challenging to pay suppliers.
As a result, cooking oil prices is set to increase highly anytime this week.
“Getting sufficient amount of dollars required to support the factory in terms of getting sufficient raw materials is not happening,” Commercial Director Rajul Malde said.
The firm is still seeking solutions to curb this problem. The director stated that they are not running the plant at the moment because they lack raw materials.
Besides, commodity prices in Kenya have been rising with the Russia-Ukraine war’s effect being felt. Cooking oil is one of the commodities whose prices have more than doubled in the last two months, and is possibly going to rise further in the coming weeks.
Furthermore, an interview with the Star, Golden Africa, dealers in cooking oil with brands such as Avena and Pika, confirmed that there has been scarcity in sunflower supply, which has forced manufacturers to only depend on crude palm oil to produce cooking oil and fats, of which Indonesia and Malaysia combined produce more than 90 per cent of the global supplies.
Prices of crude palm oil rose to $1,980 (Sh225,878 ) per metric tonne in March, from $1,400 tonnes (Sh159,712) before the war.
