By Okong’o Oduya
Busia County, Kenya: Sugar cane farmers in Busia County have been cautioned against engaging brokers/ middlemen in their business.
Local administration in the county has started an initiative to sensitize the cane farmers in the county to be aware of brokers who eat from their sweat.
In a meeting that brought together local administrators from the region that plant canes led by senior chief from Olepito location, Geoffrey Omoding, and management of west Kenya sugar millers, it was realized that the cane farmers lose millions of shillings to middlemen.
“Sugar cane farmers in the County are losing millions of shillings by involving middlemen in their businesses and by educating them they will be able to directly deal with millers. he said.
“We are going to meet with farmers to encourage them to stop involving brokers in their business,” he added.
Administrators from the sugar belt noted that farmers continue languishing in poverty as brokers reap big from their toil.
“Brokers buy canes cheaply from farmers and they sell them to the millers at a higher price making abnormal profits, leaving farmers languishing in poverty,” he lamented.
West Kenya sugar miller manager at Olepito, Gerald Okoth, admitted that middlemen in cane business have paused challenges in the industry adding that they have also started warning the farmers to start dealing with millers directly.
“We don’t deal with brokers, we contract farmers. Every cane we receive here must be from a contracted farmer, that is how we protect farmers from brokers. We do that because we understand that there are some crooked businessmen out there who want to take advantage of the situation to reap from where they didn’t work for” he said.
He urged cane farmers to desist from involving middle men in their business.
On cane development Okoth said as a company they have planted canes on more than 3500 acres of land through various contracted farmers in the county that supply them with canes.
However he says 3500 acres is not enough but they are doing better compared to the previous years, promising to encourage more farmers from the region to venture into cane farming terming it as the reliable cash crop that is capable of doing well in the county.
“There is a great potential to develop cane in Busia County. Our crushing capacity per day currently is 750 tons per day but we plan that in future we will be crashing more than 5000 tons per day, Gerald said.
Busia Sugar Industry at Busibwabo and West Kenya miller at Olepito have had a greasy relationship in the past over cane poaching, accusing each other of invading their sugar zone but the conflict has seized after Busia Sugar Industries opted to import cane from Uganda to meet their capacity of crashing 3500 tonnes daily.
