Following the recent spike in demand for Ugandan charcoal from Kenya, there has been an increase in prices for this energy source which is widely used for cooking among low earning Ugandans.

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The situation is hurting street side food vendors already operating on slim margins.

Some street food vendors especially those dealing in road side foods like chappattis are seeing their overhead costs rising sharply in recent weeks.

Currently sack of charcoal is trading between UGX75,000 ($20) to UGX95,000 (nearly$ 26) depending on the trading centre, but the trend is causing mounting concerns among people in the informal sector such as local restaurants, chapatti makers and at household levels.

However along the Kenya/Uganda border at Busia, a sack if charcoal has doubled from UGX35,000 ($9.50) to UGX80,000 ($21) and speculation is now rife as people try to exploit the situation.

“The Kenyan government stopped the burning of charcoal in Kenya. This has exerted pressure on our locally burnt charcoal. Tonnes of charcoal are now being exported to Kenya where the market is good for the dealers. This has pushed prices to move up especially towards the beginning of May,” Vincent Magola charcoal dealer told ChimpReports.

Towards the end of February this year, the government of Kenya imposed a ban on timber harvesting in all public and community forests for a period of 90 days to allow reassessment and rationalisation of the entire forest sector in Kenya

Soon after the Kenya government move, the Uganda government imposed a ban on the exports of charcoal to its neighbour, but enforcement has been impossible as charcoal traders are enticed by the rewards of high profit margins.

Sources say a joint effort by the two governments is needed to curb the smuggling. The other fall out of the Kenyan ban, is that Ugandan illegal loggers have found an incentive to risk chopping down even more trees than usual.

However small businesses involved in selling cooked food are not happy with the situation.

Moses Okello, a chapati-maker on the outskirts of the city centre said that on a daily basis, he has been using UGX20,000 to buy charcoal for frying his chapati, but following recent increases, he is now spending UGX30,000.

‘I cannot adjust the prices for my customers to cover the increase in charcoal cost because most of them are low earners and have a fixed budget. That might scare aware my customers so my daily earning will have to suffer” Okello said

Kenyan food vendors have also seen charcoal prices double, at the moment inching towards KES3000 from KES1,400 before the ban in February.

Chimpreports