Sugar millers given 7 days to pay farmers or face penalties

The Kenya Sugar Board (KSB) has issued a seven-day deadline for sugar millers to pay farmers who have delivered their sugarcane. Delays in payments will attract interest, as part of a tougher enforcement regime aimed at ending prolonged payment delays and protecting farmers' earnings in the sugarcane value chain. KSB's CEO, Jude Chesire, emphasized that the days when farmers waited indefinitely to receive payment for their sugarcane must end.

The payment requirement is part of a broader effort to address issues such as alleged manipulation of cane weights at weighbridges, which have led to farmers losing up to three tonnes of sugarcane per trailer. The KSB is procuring mobile weighbridges to verify the weight of sugarcane delivered by farmers and supporting the introduction of cane-testing units to ensure farmers receive a more accurate return based on cane quality and sugar content.

Millers are also directed to establish clear sugarcane harvesting frameworks by September 10 to improve scheduling, transportation, and delivery, thereby reducing cases where mature sugarcane remains in farms for too long. These measures come as Kenya's sugar industry recovers, with domestic sugar production reaching an all-time high of 815,454 metric tonnes in 2024.

However, Kenya still relies on imports to meet demand, with the country consuming about 1.216 million metric tonnes annually, leaving a significant gap between local production and demand. To address this, Kenya has started refining imported raw sugar locally, with Mombasa Sugar Refinery Limited beginning the process. The government's long-term plan involves increasing sugarcane acreage and productivity, improving mill efficiency, expanding value addition, and developing more domestic refining capacity to reduce reliance on imports and increase returns for sugarcane farmers.