Millers seek inclusion in State’s duty-free imports plan

Sugarcane millers have requested the government to be part of entities allowed to import the sweetener to plug a deficit that has led to a scarcity of the commodity, thereby sparking inflation.

Kenya Union of Sugarcane Plantation Workers (KUSPW) Secretary General Francis Wangara argues that the move will allow the millers to retain their workforce while factories are closed for maintenance. “Our mills will cease operations for three to four months. During this period, they will rely on imported sugar and we want the government to give them a certain percentage to import,” he said.

Last year, authorities allowed the Kenya National Trading Corporation (KNTC) to import 200,000 tonnes of duty-free sugar as it attempted to lower the price of the commodity that had hit Sh312 for a 2-kilogramme packet.

In total, 300,000 tonnes of the commodity came from outside the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa).

The Sugar Directorate locked out the millers from the multi-billion shilling duty-free imports window to protect farmers from making losses after the millers abandoned buying and processing cane from them in favour of duty-free imports where they made huge margins.

Nuclear estates

A source privy to industry politics yesterday told the Business Hub that private millers neither have nuclear estates nor contracted farmers and rely on poaching cane from legacy millers including Mumias, Nzoia, Sony and Chemelil Sugar factories to process their Sugar.

“They are not really interested in processing. These factories are interested in privatisation, thus importing the commodity to repackage since they make more money,” said the source who preferred anonymity.

He said government-owned millers have less capacity to import because of the stringent procurement processes and usually relied on private millers to import the commodity.