Reports Leo Odera Omolo In Awendo Town
The cold war of words over the disputed raw cane supplies to the two sugar mills based in Migori and Homa-Bay Counties.
The situation is rapidly growing from bad to worse and now call for the government intervention to have the supplies of raw cane to the Awendo based South Nyanza Sugar Company Limited and Sugari Industries Company Limited based in Ndhiwa based within the County of Homa-Bay.
The distance between the two facilities is moderately estimated to be between 15 and 20 kilometers apart. The new factory is located at Wachara Markat in a pace previously reserved by the surrounding communities for common cattle grazing known as Paw Otange. It has been on the running test for sometime, but went into full blast production early last week with a prime rice of Kshs 5,093 per ton of raw cane and not charging any transport cost.
On hearing of the frightening prices being offered by the new Mill, he SONYSUGAR managing director Paul Odolla unilaterally without consulting other stakeholder announced that Sony Sugar would now pay Kshs 4,500 per ton, but still charges other expenses such as harvesting and transportation fees on farmer’s cane.
Both the planners within the government and the investors stands equally blamed for having failed to strictly observed the rule set by the Kenya Sugar Board, which is the regulating authority in the sugar industry that require anyone intending to establish a new sugar factory must ensure that the new facility is located 40 kilometers away from the existing facility in order to avoid the scrambling over the raw cane, hence the existing pathetic situation.
Furthermore, the Sukari Industries should have been prevailed upon to identify and developed its own cane firm twenty months before the completion of the construction work and installation of the factory, though it has no nucleus estate farm of its own for the steady supplies of raw cane, it could have contracted its own farmers within its can growing zones.
The Sonysugar management blames the new Mill for targeting its own cane, which it had advanced the fa contracted farmers a colossal of money on credit facilities. Such facilities restrict the farmers to deliver the cane to the Sonysugar shat the company could recover the money it had advanced he can farmers for cane development and husbandry.
But within the same cane is delivered to another factory, SonySugar books of account and records remained and the company stand to incur loses running into millions of shillings.
The Sukari Industries ltd, however, countered this line of argument by saying that it has only targeted non-contracted cane farmers, though such farmers are located within the Sonysugar cane growing zones. But Sonysugar insists that even in the case of non-contracted farmers, it had supplied its own cane seedlings to the farmer for planting, therefore it has the monopoly rights to harvest such can farms.
The on-going war has come about due to sharp differences in what is believed to be the cut-throat-prices per tonnage for cane. For a long time SonySugar Company has been accused of poor plan of can harvisting programme, which has led to thousands of tons of mature rotting in the field un-harvested.
The company manager with total impunity were involved in corruptive harvesting practices common called “Helicopter Harvesting” in which they were only harvesting cane selectively on farms where the owner had paid out ”Kick-Backs” or bribe money and jumping hose which belonged to unknown poor farmers. They completely ignored the plight of poor rural peasants who depended on their small scale farms for their livelihood.
Thousand of small scale and contracted cane farmers become disillusioned and frustrated when their crops got rotten in the field un-harvested and go into the waste. Some of the farmers abandoned cane rowing for other cash crop such as tobacco, maize and others.
The situation is also aggravated by payment of cane bills. Whereas the Sukari Industries Limited of Ndhiwa pays promptly on cane delivery, whereas Sonysugar of Awendo pays after two months of cane delivery. In the past payment from SonySugar were not forthcoming even after six months, sometime even one year.
Other accusation and claims against SonySugar is its poor public relations between its top managers and the ordinary cane farmers.
Immediately after getting wind of the impending scramble for can, Sonysugar went into can harvesting spree, clearing nearly all mature cane in Sakwa South area, but some of the cane which were harvested in hasty remained rotting and drying in the filed due to shortage of transportation fleet.
SonySugar then moved to the Trans-Mara district in Narok County in Maasailand where most of the cane belonging to its top manager and sent the fleet of transporting tractors. The move has also elicited anger and criticism.
The woe of SonySugar could even be worse when another sugar factory slated to go into production in the first week of December began crushing cane. The Trans-Mara Sugar Company is currently on the running test and would soon start the actual cane crushing work.
Sonysugar company has also began panicking that he new mill, which like the one in Ndhiwa has no nucleus estates of its own for steady supplies of raw cane for crushing. The new Mill is also targeting the cane grown in Maasai land with the financial backing to individual farmers by SonySugar. And once it commences crushing, the two mill would push SonySugar to the wall.
In order to make its operation continue uninterrupted SonySugar will have to usher in some kind of radical reforms in its management in order to make it incentive to do business with.
Ends