Sugarcane harvesting. Routine shutdowns and cane scarcity have sparked a sugar shortage ahead of expected high demand during the festive season. Photo/FILE
Routine shutdowns and cane scarcity have sparked a sugar shortage ahead of expected high demand during the festive season.
Agriculture PS Romano Kiome blamed the shortage on ongoing repairs at Chemelil — one of the seven publicly owned millers — as well as poor cane development by the sugar firms.
“There is a general shortage but it is not yet a crisis. We have asked other mills to expand their processing capacities,” said Dr Kiome on telephone.
The PS pointed an accusing finger at private sugar millers saying they were poaching cane from the catchment of public factories instead of developing their own sources.
Although shortfalls are usually covered by duty free imports from Common Markets for Eastern and Southern Africa of 220,000 tonnes a year, long term supply contracts have limited the capacity of some millers, especially the private ones to import the commodity.
Former Kenya Sugar Board (KSB) chairman Saulo Busolo said the situation could improve from March next year when crushing capacity from the more efficient millers increases.
The government said it would disburse Sh1.2 billion to help public millers increase cane production.
Some retailers said that they had experienced sugar shortages for weeks now with those in South Nyanza saying they had exhausted stocks. Supermarkets in the region have started limiting shoppers to one kilogramme at a time.
“We are facing difficulty. We cannot find the quantities that we normally stock during this season,” said a senior official at Tuskys Supermarket.
Sony Sugar Company, which is the main processor in South Nyanza is closed for annual maintenance. Sources at the sugar company said major aspects of the service had been completed and milling would resume soon.
A spot check in Migori, Isebania, Kehancha, Awendo, Uriri and Rongo showed that some traders were now selling imported sugar, suspected to have been smuggled from Uganda and Tanzania and later re-packaged into local brands.
“The quality of the foreign sugar is very poor but we must just buy it because there is no alternative,” said Migori town hotelier Ali Mohammed. But KSB has moved to block smuggling of cheap and poor quality sugar into the country.
Barons
The regulator directed the Kenya Revenue Authority and the police to make sure no sugar imports entered the country through the key entry points.
Kenya Sugar Board surveillance officer Frederick Miriti said sugar that barons were now importing sugar from India through Tanzania and Uganda and later disguised the commodity as local brands.
