Traders mill at Sony Sugar as scarcity bites

Queues of cargo trucks are lengthening each day at Sony Sugar Company premises as sugar scarcity intensifies.

Traders from Migori, Homa Bay, Kisii, Kericho and Nakuru regions are spending days  at the Awendo-based factory looking for the commodity whose price keeps skyrocketing in the market.

Others leave the place without the sugar quantities they wanted as the miller claims to be balancing the distribution of available stocks.

“We want our loyal suppliers to get a ration each. Some traders want to buy sugar in bulk and hoard it, as they envisage further price increases,” said a manager on condition of anonymity because he is not a spokesperson of the company.

But some traders accused the firm of allegedly favouring a few sugar traders.

“We know some traders are now acting as the company’s brokers. They buy sugar from the factory in bulk and sell it to us at exorbitant prices,” said Mr John Otieno, a trader.

Meanwhile, some traders from Migori County are crossing the border to Tanzania  to buy the commodity  from Kilombero Sugar factory.

They purchase the commoditiy in Tarime and Mwanza towns in Tanzania and smuggle it to Kenya.

Tanzanian is against sugar export for fear of a looming shortage resulting from a supply deficit throughout the world.

Factories have, in the meantime, been asked to increase the price of cane to conform with the high cost of milled sugar in the market

A  Kenya Sugar Board director representing Sony Sugar Belt region, Mr Okoth Obado, said it was immoral for millers to continue using old rates  to pay farmers when they were raking in millions of shillings.