Kenyan cotton farmers are obtaining premium prices due to the filtering effect of rising global prices into the local market.
Purchase prices of cotton lint by ginneries have increased 25 percent, from Sh96 per kg the minimum price threshold that had been fixed at the beginning of the year to Sh120.
Local farmers meet just 15 percent of the average domestic consumption, while remaining requirement is fulfilled by sourcing input from adjacent countries including Uganda, Tanzania and Sudan.
Uganda, a country with no textile factories, has effectively increased its cotton production to 300,000 bales, and Tanzania's cotton production is about 700,000 bales.