There are 3 sugar belts in Kenya, namely the Nyando, the western sugar belt and the south Nyanza sugar zone. Sugar is the 2nd largest contributor to Kenya’s agricultural growth after tea.
The area under cane is 123,622 hectares of which 111,189 ha is farmed by smallholders and 12,433 under nucleus estates. Kenya’s annual production ranges from 400,000 - 500,000 metric tons. In 2006 Kenya produced 475,670 tons of sugar. This does meet the country’s annual demand and consequently sugar is imported. In July 2008 the Kenyan government cancelled the licences of all its 55 sugar importers saying they had misused them, evaded taxes and that their imports were hurting local farmers. Kenya has been allowed to set a limit of 200,000 tons of sugar that can be imported tax-free under rules of trade in the 19-member Common Markets for Eastern and Southern Africa economic bloc.
Sugar production technology in most factories is old and inefficient. In late 2007 the Kenyan government launched the $150 million Ramisi Sugar Factory revival project aimed at increasing the factory’s crushing capacity. The factory stands on a 15,000 acre piece of land leased to Kwale International Sugar Company by the government.
The sugar industry in Kenya has struggled for many years for various reasons, such as lack of accountability and transparency in the sector, poor management, excessive taxation and delayed payments to farmers to name a few. This had led to a serious increase in poverty for the approximately 5 million people who depend on sugarcane farming in Kenya either directly or indirectly. 88% of the total area under sugar cane in Kenya is undertaken by outgrowers. The majority of these are small-scale growers, whilst the remaining area is largely under sugar factories in the form of nucleus estates. There are currently 6 functioning sugar factories in Kenya, only one of which is entirely privately owned (West Kenya Sugar Company). Mumias Sugar Company was privatized in late 2001, with government retaining majority shareholding. The remaining factories are all government owned.
