Kenya sugar manufacturers threaten to shut down operations this Friday

Barely three weeks after sugarcane farmers secured a victory in the corridors of justice, sugar millers have now come out guns blazing threatening a shutdown of operations beginning this week Friday.

In a statement addressed to the Agriculture and Food Authority, as well as the ministries of Agriculture and Treasury, the Kenya Sugar Manufacturers Association have opposed a court ruling that directed them to pay farmers Ksh.5,900 up from the Ksh.5,100 per tonne that had been set by the cane pricing committee on April 8, 2024.

Through their chairman Jayantilal Patel, the millers indicated that the price was not only an infringement of the contractual arrangements between the millers and the farmers but also a violation of the mandate of the cane pricing committee, with what they say would cause far reaching financial implications on the part of millers.

In the protest letter, the association also indicated that their planned closure will lead to loss of 30,000 jobs, loss of revenue topping Ksh.2 billion every month as well as a decline in the trading of sugar.

They also indicated the loss to farmers whom they said will lose an average of Ksh.3.6 billion they acquire from millers on a monthly basis from the supply of cane.

The farmers, however, are not moved by the shutdown threat.

Charles Atiang’, one such cane farmer, said: “We are saying we are not moved by those threats from the millers, let them go ahead and shut those mills if they want...for all we know, there is no miller without the farmer...there is no worker without the farmer.”

It remains to be seen whether the millers will make good their threat and what the implication will be to the availability of sugar in the market.