A rise in consumer purchasing power in Kenya over the last three years has pushed national sugar demand to an estimated 700,000 tonnes annually compared to a domestic production of 400,000 tonnes currently, leaving a 300,000 tonnes per year deficit.
Vice chairman of Kenya Sugar Board (KSB), Evans Kidero, says that strategies should be put in place to increase national production. He said Kenya should focus its efforts on how to meet domestic demand for sugar, whose consumption is expected to hit one million metric tonnes by 2012 , instead of squabbling over COMESA (Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa) imports.
Kidero, who is also the managing director of Mumias Sugar Company said, "Instead of being worried over the increasing sugar demands against the production, we are busy fighting over imports and benefiting farmers in Malawi and Britain where the cheap sugar is sourced from. The imported sugar does not support the local farmer."
He said the solution to the sugar deficit would be to privatise the sugar factories, which operate as parastatals. "I would like to urge the Government to fast track the privatisation of the sugar mills to allow private capital for expansion to flow in," he said.
Kidero said the cost of sugar production was too high on rain fed cane. He maintained the solution to reducing the high cost of cane production would be the Tana delta project where the cane matures faster because of irrigation farming.
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