[Courtesy]Phyllis’ mini-mart at Hunters Kasarani has experienced a dramatic reduction of shoppers in the cooking oil section since the turn of the year. This is tied to the increase in prices of cooking oil after a global surge in the price of palm oil in 2020. The customers carry their containers for the quarter, half, full litre of cooking oil they wish to buy. Most of Kenya’s palm oil comes from Indonesia, where the two islands of Borneo and Sumatra, which are some of the world’s biggest suppliers of palm oil, are. And retailers like Phyllis can only watch as their customers wheel past the cooking oil sections, or stop by trying to tweak their budgets.

Source: Standard Digital June 11, 2021 21:00 UTC