Sony raises price of cane, tobacco farmers cry foul

What you need to know:

Sony has reviewed the price from Sh4,200 to Sh4,320.
Over 30,000 contracted cane farmers have been agitating for better prices due to increased cost of living and expensive farm inputs.
Tobacco growers are still pondering what to do with the cash crop before switching to other crops.

Sony sugar company has increased the price of cane by Sh120 per tonne following pressure from farmers.

The miller has reviewed the price from Sh4,200 to Sh4,320.

Mr Ambrose Otieno Weda, the company’s board chairman, made the announcement.

I am pleased to announce that Sony sugar company has yet again increased the price of cane effective April 15... this is the fourth increase in one year,” he said.

Over 30,000 contracted cane farmers have been agitating for better prices due to increased cost of living and expensive farm inputs.

“We are happy with the new prices but it should hit Sh5,000 per tonne because cane farming has become very expensive,” said Mr Peter Omollo, a grower.

Meanwhile, over 10,000 tobacco growers in Migori County are still stuck with an unharvested crop as they continue to wait for a new investor.

Thousands of acres of tobacco in Suna West, Kuria West and Kuria East sub-counties risk going to waste for lack of a buyer.

The farmers’ woes were compounded by the exit of Alliance One Tobacco Company, which was the biggest leaf buyer in the county. The firm moved to Uganda and Zimbabwe two years ago citing poor local leaf quality.

BAT Kenya and Mastermind Tobacco still operate in the region but on a small scale. “The future looks very bleak… we do not know who will buy our tobacco,” said Mr Augustine Mwita, the Kenya Tobacco Growers Association national chairman.

Migori accounts for 70 per cent of tobacco grown in Kenya. “We are asking both the county and national governments to speed up the process of searching for an investor,” said Mr Mwita. The growers are still pondering what to do with the cash crop before switching to other crops. The industry used to pay over Sh1.7 billion to farmers in the region annually. Alliance was paying Migori farmers Sh1.2 billion annually.

“We have been unable to reap any serious benefits from tobacco farming because of low prices offered by buyers. This explains the presence of abject poverty in tobacco growing areas,” said farmer John Rioba.