Sugar factories staring at long closer over cane shortage

 

Sugarcane farmers tend to their crops at Lunganyiro village in Matungu, Kakamega county. [Benard Lusigi, Standard]

This was deliberated during a meeting convened by the Western region security committee led by Regional Commissioner Irungu Macharia that brought together cane farmers, sugarcane millers, and the Agriculture and Food Authority (AFA) in Kakamega.

During the meeting, it was revealed the dirty and unorthodox means used by various millers to poach and harvest immature cane to continue with their cane crushing at the expense of ensuring cane development to ensure there are enough materials to sustain crushing operations in the sector.

It was revealed that harvesting of cane at night and transportation of cane materials at night, and the cunning of farmers who are under contract with different millers, contributing to sugar shortage.

Simon Oduk, a farmer in Busia, questioned why Mumias Sugar factory was allowed to resume milling before developing their own sugarcane to sustain their crushing capacity.

“In Busia, there is widespread poaching of sugarcane and the poacher is Mumias Sugar. Who is behind Mumias Sugar because no action is being taken against them,” said Oduki.

Oduki asked the government to ensure every investor in the sugar industry gets fair treatment.

His sentiments were echoed by Monica Mungala also a cane farmer from Busia who wondered why Mumias Sugar was harvesting immature canes when the miller had over-mature sugarcane in their 20 hectares of nucleus.

“Why is Mumias Sugar harvesting immature canes in Busia when in their nucleus they have canes they developed in 2022 which continue to overgrow,” said Mung’ala.

Merisha Achieng from Busia Sugar Company said a miller such as Mumias Sugar may be unable to mill over 2,500 tonnes per day without canes from out-growers.

“Busia Sugar is unable to crush to their capacity because that cane which we developed has been poached but Mumias Sugar is milling over 2,500 per day, where are they getting these canes? “posed Meresha.

She continued,” Mumias Sugar went under then came back and immediately they resumed milling and that is why they are poaching canes.” 

Mumias Sugar Factory Head of Operations Stephen Kihumba acknowledged cane poaching and immature cane harvesting accusing, defending the miller against cane poaching accusations.

“There is serious carpet harvesting of sugarcane at the moment where no canes are being left regardless of the age. Factories are likely to close for a longer period,” said Kihumba.  

“We have many cases of sugar poaching and as a miller we want to urge our brothers West Kenya Sugar company to stop poaching our cane, we are respecting the sugar clusters and so this should be applied to all millers.”

Stanley Siuna from Nzoia Sugar said the company has lost 40,000 tonnes to cane poaching and are unable to raise money to pay farmers due to the challenge.

"We are trying to put plans in place to pay farmers," he noted.

However, it was revealed that some millers are harvesting cane at night and transportation is done at night.

Additionally, millers also accused each other of invading each other's territories. The lower zone includes Olepito Sugar Company, Busia Sugar Company, and Mumias Sugar Company while the Northern part includes West Kenya Sugar Company, Nzoia Sugar, Naitiri Sugar Company and Butali sugar company.

Butali Sugar Mills Limited Representative Pratap Keshwala said an MOU which was signed with Butali, Naitiri, and West Kenya in the upper region and it's working well and other milers in their zone should sign and adhere to the MoU.

"On poaching, we need demarcation by AFA because transporters are being used as brokers and the biggest issue is millers don't develop cane that's why we have poaching issue. Millers need to put priority on cane development to avert this," said Keshwala.

AFA Director Jude Chesire said it becomes difficult for authority to enforce since it has no existing laws on poaching however stating that they will be forced to make difficult decisions for millers based in the Lower zone.

He confirmed that AFA was in receipt of many cases of sugarcane poaching especially in Busia County.

"We noticed that the Memorandum of Understanding(MOU) millers sign is not adhered to that is why there are many cases of poaching and harvesting of immature canes,” said Mr Chesire.

He added “If millers do not maintain discipline then we shall be back to where we were last year. The kind of indiscipline we are seeing should not be condoned."

The Regional Commissioner Irungu Macharia said he will not sit back and watch the industry go down on its knees because of some indiscipline millers.

“We had this kind of meeting in January this year and agreed that no more poaching of sugarcane and harvesting of immature canes unfortunately nothing changed,” said Macharia.

He said it was unfair for a certain miller to support farmers in cane development then another miller came later to poach that cane.