Nzoia
Sugar Company has refuted claims that the company has been losing Sh120 million
per month due to illegal importation and smuggling of cheap sugar. Managing
director Saul Wasilwa dismissed earlier reports that quoted the public
relations officer to the effect that the Bungoma- based miller was unable to
sell 100,000 metric tonnes saying the reporter had got the facts wrong. He said
the figure quoted was imaginary since Nzoia Sugar mills 70,000 metric tonnes
per year.
Wasilwa
said the stock is moving contrary to reports that the company is not selling
sugar besides milling daily, though not as fast as they would have liked to but
that at least there was progress. Wasilwa urged the media to get facts before
publishing reports.
Wasilwa
attributed the high stocks to large volumes of illegally imported and cheap
sugar circulating in the market.
Webuye
West MP Alfred Sambu urged the government to deal decisively with unscrupulous
businessmen who import cheap sugar which has now crippled the local sugar
industry.
The
illicit sugar has been retailing at Sh90 a kilogramme in supermarkets while the
locally processed commodity is sold at Sh110 a kilogramme. The rise in
illegal sugar imports comes after the government tightened surveillance over
importers of both domestic and industrial sugar to curb dumping it in the local
market. The state plans to establish an inter-agency enforcement unit to deal
with the illegal imports that have unsettled the market.
Despite
a sustained decline in price, the commodity has remained artificially expensive
as traders continue to rake in billions. In an exclusive interview with Weekly Citizen,
Kakamega senator Bonny Khalwale blamed a cabal of powerful individuals for the
chaos in the sugar sector, where everything possible is being done to keep
sugar prices high as local millers perform dismally in market. Khalwale said
the millers are being run down to ensure the same cartels buy them cheaply when
they are finally offloaded in the market under an envisaged privatisation
scheme, he claimed. Khalwale whose county is in the Western sugar belt did not
divulge names of the shady individuals, but promised to reveal them in the
senate where senators enjoy immunity as a special privilege.
Kimilili
constituency politician Didmus Barasa raised concern over importation of
illegal sugar. He said the vice threatens the local sugar industry. Barasa said
if it is not checked, 10 sugar millers may soon close down and urged the
government to move with speed and check the illegal trade by making sure
foreign sugar does not affect production of the community by local sugar
industries, he said.
During
a thanksgiving service for Bungoma governor Ken Lusaka at Kamukuywa Primary
School grounds in the county this year, President Uhuru Kenyatta told traders
to stop importation of cheap sugar to protect the local industry. The president
said the government will not tolerate unscrupulous traders who are killing the
local sugar industry through cheap imports. The president directed release of
Sh500 million to be paid to farmers who delivered their sugarcane to Nzoia
Sugar Company.
He
pointed out that the region’s economy depended on the sugar industry and urged
cane farmers to diversify their activities by growing other cash crops. Bungoma
governor has also voiced his concern at cheap sugar imports which he said was
killing the local industry. Kenya has been a favourite destination for dumping
of cheap sugar by unscrupulous businesspeople who take advantage of the high
cost of production of the commodity by local millers. For example, it costs
Sh86,970 to produce a tonne of sugar in Kenya compared to Sh26, 000 in
Mauritius.
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