Kenyan textbook publishers are already warning of an impending price increase, which they attribute to the present increase in international freight expenses.
The new improvements, according to the companies, are the result of the high cost of printing paper, which is their primary raw material for book production.
The majority of imports, particularly printing paper, are claimed to come from paper mills in Europe, China, India, and Australia, where costs have soared since the COVID-19 epidemic broke out in 2020.
Initially, bringing in a container would have cost $1,500 (Ksh 172,650), but now it would cost $8,000. (Ksh 920,800).
If the government does not reconsider the prices, parents will have to dig further into their pockets when the CBC’s Junior Secondary opens in January 2023 and the academic calendar returns to normal.
Last year, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad) forecasted that rising freight costs in developing nations will raise the cost of commodities.
