Nairobi, Feb. 7 -- Kenya has ended the ban on the export of molasses even as the local distillers continue to pay a steep price for the raw material used to make alcohol citing shortage.

Export of molasses, critical for making spirits, had been on ice since February last year after much of it was diverted to the neighbouring market leaving local distillers without the input used to prepare ethanol.

But in a letter to all sugar millers, the acting director of the Sugar Directorate Jude Chesire announced the lifting of the suspension, noting that the decision was informed by the completion of a verification exercise which established that millers are currently holding excess molasses.

"In compliance with the presidential pronouncement, t...