Cooking Oil Has Become The New Kenyan Gold

Kenyans have been forced to continuously dig deeper into their pockets to cater for the cost of cooking oil which now retails at a high of 354 shillings for a liter in various shopping outlets such as Carrefour and Naivas supermarket and online selling platforms such as Jumia and Copia.

The five-liter now sells as high as 1, 500 shillings as compared to December when it was retailing between 1,100 and 1,300 shillings. The three-liter Fresh Fry Cooking Oil on the other hand has shot to a high of 956 shillings down from a minimum of 850 shillings a month ago

According to data from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics in January 2021, Kenyans paid an average of 303 shillings per liter of the commodity in December 2021 up from 206 shillings in December 2020.

This was mainly attributed to an increase in prices of commodities under; food and non-alcoholic beverages (9.09%); transport (8.10%); and housing, water, electricity, gas, and other fuels (6.24%)

Pwani Oil managing director Rajul Malde said that the surge can also be due to the increase in the cost of imported products used in the manufacture of cooking oil.

“Most of our cooking oil is essentially imported from various places around the world and these are driven by commodity market indexes and therefore the index will determine the input raw material cost.

He also added that Kenya’s weakening shilling against the dollar, as well as the local conversion cost, have been cited as a major factor contributing to the price shoot.

While most Kenyans are talking of getting back to the traditional Kimbo cooking fat, a majority have decided that the commodity is now for the chosen few who are rich.

Read More: Cooking Oil Now a Commodity for the Rich