Agriculture and Food Authority (AFA) director-general Alfred Busolo has warned millers against breaching the contracts entered into with farmers that only allow harvesting mature cane.
Mr Busolo said there is enough sugar in the country, meaning there is no excuse for millers to frustrate farmers through premature harvesting.
The Sugar Directorate will revoke the licences of millers harvesting immature cane, subjecting farmers to losses.
Agriculture and Food Authority (AFA) director-general Alfred Busolo has warned millers against breaching the contracts entered into with farmers that only allow harvesting mature cane.
All millers have drawn contracts with the dates for harvesting clearly stipulated.
“We have made it clear to them that we are going to take stern action against those who are harvesting immature cane. They risk losing their licences,” he said.
Mr Busolo said there is enough sugar in the country, meaning there is no excuse for millers to frustrate farmers through premature harvesting.
Kenyan millers use the weight-based method to pay farmers and immature cane is normally underweight. The move has also subjected millers to the high cost of production as they use more raw material in processing.
Ordinarily, millers are supposed to use 10 tonnes of cane to produce a tonne of sugar but most are now using 12 tonnes.
Mumias Sugar #ticker:MSC chief executive Nashion Aseka said the miller is avoiding the use of the premature cane, which has seen them cut production time to four days in a week.
“Immature cane costs the millers a lot in terms of expenses and we are trying as much as we can not to use it, that is the reason why we have limited our production days to four in a week,” he said.
Sugar production in the country dropped 49 per cent in nine months to September as factories grappled with a shortage of raw material.
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