Third factory closes as fears of a sugar shortage looms
Sugarcane farmers harvest cane on a plantation in western Kenya. Chemelil Sugar Company has finalised plans to generate electricity after the installation of a Sh105 million turbine alternator. FILE PHOTO |
What you need to know:
- Sony will join Mumias and the privately owned West Kenya which have also shut for annual maintenance.
- The company has in its stores about 6,000 tonnes of unsold sugar but these are not enough to sustain demand during the closure.
A third sugar factory in western Kenya is set to close for annual maintenance heightening fears of a possible shortage of the sweetener in the country.
Sony will join Mumias and the privately owned West Kenya which have also shut for annual maintenance.
Sony Sugar corporate affairs officer Zack Irungu said the annual maintenance will be for a month.
“The management has not set the exact date for closure but it is definitely within the next few days,” he told the Daily Nation.
“We have limited stocks because we could not mill a lot of cane since many farms are inaccessible by our tractors as a result of rains,” Mr Irungu said.
The company has in its stores about 6,000 tonnes of unsold sugar but these are not enough to sustain demand during the closure.
Traders are already positioning themselves to buy sugar in bulk to hoard in an effort to push up retail prices.
Some sugar industry players have faulted the trend where major millers close for maintenance around the same time.
“They should close at different times in order to protect consumers from exploitation by cheeky traders,” Mr Luke Otieno, who has been working in the sugar sub-sector for the last 20 years, said.
