Kakamega Deputy Governor Ayub Savula has asked the Agriculture CS to gazette the Sugarcane Pricing Committee.
He said the expiry of the Sugarcane Pricing Committee must be addressed immediately so farmers are not exploited by millers.
Savula said the one-month interim sugar cane price announced by the Agriculture and Food Authority is illegal.
“There shouldn’t be a vacuum in the pricing of cane because there is a pricing formula, which is guided by the shelve prices of milled sugar. When the shelve price of sugar goes down, the price of raw cane similarly drops,” he said in his office.
AFA directed millers to pay farmers Sh4,950 per tonne of cane for the month of August on interim basis.
This is a reduction from the Sh5,125 the Sugarcane Pricing Committee last set for millers.
“Following the expiry of the interim Sugarcane Pricing Committee and in absence of a Cabinet secretary to appoint the same, the price of cane per tonne in the interior for the month of August is guided at Sh4,950,” a notice by acting sugar directorate director June Chesire read.
The notice dated August 7 is addressed to sugar millers and copied to the Agriculture PS and AFA director general.
Savula asked Parliament to finalise the enactment of the Sugar Bill to streamline operations in the sector.
“It went to Senate and the mediation committee and it's lying in Parliament,” he said.
He said the millers may get a window to manipulate cane pricing, in the absence of the committee.
Savula said there is double taxation on sugar that should be addressed.
He said the government charges on fuel and similar taxation on cane transport.
“The government should remove VAT on transport so that this ends double taxation and transfer the same to a farmer whose earnings will then increase,” he said.