During first week of September 1987, 240,000 bags lay at warehouses of four sugar factories

Hired workers off-load the sacks of sugar from one of the eight containers which were impounded by the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) at the FOCAS Freight Yard in Changamwe

NAIROBI, KENYA: Sugar was everywhere, but selling it proved sour business.

Thousands of tonnes of the imported sweetener had flooded the market to the peril of cane farmers in Western Kenya.

This was in 1987.

In a crisis meeting, the farmers resolved to diversify pushed by faint memories of European settlers who had once lived in the region and were successful dairy farmers.

Fuelling this influx of sugar were claims that it was cheaper to import it rather than produce it locally. Importers bought the sugar at Sh300 per tonne and sold it at a higher price, noted Jonathan Owako chairman of the Kenya National Farmers Union, Muhoroni branch.

Mr Owako, himself a notable sugarcane farmer, said: “unnecessary agents” interfered in the process between farmers and consumers, making it expensive to produce sugar locally.

The farmer’s union was also strongly against the Ministry of Commerce taking part in the distribution of sugar.

The responsibility was for the Kenya Sugar Authority (now Kenya Sugar Board) right from sugarcane production to the point it reached the consumer, said the union.

Farmers in the sugar belt led by Muhoroni Sugarcane Farmers Cooperative Union now wanted to try their hands at dairy farming to supplement their income.

An option they had resorted to after “implications of recent events in the sugar industry” that left them with poor returns. Sugar factories had plenty of stock and crisis was imminent.

During the first week of September 1987, 240, 000 bags lay at the warehouses of four sugar factories, namely, Mumias, Sony, Chemilil and Muhoroni.

Marketing agent

A spokesman for these factories said that the Kenya National Trading Corporation, the sole marketing agent for sugar, was not buying from them because “apparently there was imported sugar all over.”

At the end of the previous week, Mumias Sugar Company had the highest stock with 155,000 bags. Its General Manager, Michael Glassford, said their stores “were bursting with sugar.”

The General Manager of Chemilil Sugar J.K. Ruto feared that if the influx wasn’t resolved soon, the factories might face serious cash flow problems and become unable to pay farmers.

Stock levels at Chemilil stood at 54,000 bags and with an average production of 2,600 bags daily, they had to create new stores to accommodate the stock.

South Nyanza Sugar Company (Sony Sugar) reported that the situation had affected between 40 to 50 per cent of their production. Muhoroni Sugar Company too had 11,000 bags awaiting collection at the factory.

They were producing 1,200 bags daily. However, the government denied the sugar crisis calling it a “temporary glut.”

The then Minister for Agriculture Elijah Mwangale said sugarcane farmers recorded a bumper crop that year and the country had 28,000 tonnes of sugar in excess of the national strategic reserves of 92,000 tonnes.

“We are in a situation of self-sufficiency by deliberate Government policy, and it is not and will never be the government’s intention to discourage farmers,” said the minister.

When the East African Standard (now The Standard) visited the sugar belt it recorded only woes by the cane growers.

“The situation was sugar, sugar, everywhere but nowhere to sell it,” wrote the paper.

Cash constraints

Factories could not pay for delivered cane nor buy any more due to storage problems.

Farmers complained that they could not even weed their cane due to cash constraints.

Muhoroni Sugarcane Farmers’ Cooperative Union wanted the imported sugar banned to allow for the locally produced sugar to be sold and relieve the factory and the farmers the financial burden. In August this year, sugarcane growers drawn from Kakamega, Busia, Bungoma and parts of Siaya strongly opposed plans allowing millers to import and re-brand sugar as indicated by Agriculture Cabinet Secretary Willy Bett. The imports would cancel out a deficit of 400,000 tonnes, reported The Standard.

Mr Bett said that the move would help out millers experiencing cane shortage.

However, the cane growers under the Kenya National Federation of Sugarcane Farmers said that cheap imports were to blame for the ailing sugar industry.

Also in May this year, Mumias Sugar Company was blamed for a sugar shortage in the country.

It stopped operations in April after a shortage of cane.

The Standard reported that the miller wanted to be allowed to import at least 300,000 tonnes of sugar to aid income generation and to sustain operations.