By Kepher Otieno - Reporter
Kenya, 25 April 2026 - Kenya’s sugar sector has been thrust into fresh turmoil after farmers flatly rejected the government’s decision to lower the minimum price of sugarcane from KSh 5,750 to KSh 5,500 per tonne, a move they describe as both punitive and economically reckless.
In a strongly worded statement, Saulo Wanambisi Busolo, chairman of the Sugar Campaign for Change, warned that the reduction strikes at the very heart of rural livelihoods and risks triggering an exodus from cane farming.
Busolo argues that the era of administrative pricing has run its course, and that the latest adjustment only deepens the strain on farmers already grappling with soaring input costs.
From land preparation and seed planting to fertiliser, agro-chemicals, transport, and labour, production expenses have surged well beyond the new government-set floor price. In simple terms, farmers are now being asked to produce at a loss.
“The new price does not even cover the cost of production,” Busolo notes, underscoring the widening gap between policy decisions and economic reality on the ground.
At the heart of the dispute lies what farmers see as a glaring contradiction in government policy.
While millers continue to enjoy licences and regulatory protection, they are simultaneously allowed to import sugar in large volumes, saturating the domestic market.
According to Busolo, this dual approach has distorted the market and undermined local producers.
Millers, he says, cannot flood the country reportedly with imports and then turn around to cite low prices and high costs as justification for squeezing farmers further.
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“They created the problem, and they must bear the consequences—not the smallholder farmer,” Busolo insists.
The farmers’ position is unambiguous. They reject the reduced price outright and are demanding a return to a minimum rate that reflects the true cost of production.
Beyond that, they are calling for a complete overhaul of the pricing regime, advocating for a transparent, market-linked system that rewards efficiency, risk, and labour rather than relying on politically influenced controls.
There is also growing pressure on millers to take responsibility for what farmers describe as over-importation and poor commercial judgement.
The stakes are high. Busolo cautions that if the government presses ahead with the price cut, farmers may begin to withdraw from sugarcane farming altogether. Such a shift would have sweeping consequences: shrinking rural incomes, destabilised local economies, and increased reliance on imported sugar. In effect, the policy risks hollowing out the very sector it seeks to regulate.
The message from the fields is clear and urgent. The government now faces a stark choice—stand with farmers and stabilise the industry, or maintain the current course and risk the gradual disintegration of Kenya’s sugar economy.
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