The chairman of Mumias Sugar Company has urged farmers to stop selling their sugarcane before it matures.
Speaking while at the company’s premises Ameyo said there are businessmen who are lying to farmers to buying their sugarcane while still young thus he urged farmers to desist from the vice and distant themselves from unscrupulous people.
Ameyo wanted other millers to invest in cane development instead of depending on their cane alone. He said that the trend of poachers has gone up and this worries the company. He also insisted on field labelling for this will help keep away poachers.
“It is important for the people of Kenya to know we are not worried of competition from any other miller, Mumias can withstand any competition so long as the plain field is labelled, we are prepared to compete if these millers also invested in cane development and we are able to buy their cane as well,” said Ameyo.
“If the field will not be labelled and if one miller invests in cane development and you just come and reap benefits of that development it is a worrying trend because as we speak today there are millers who come in this region offering to purchase our farmers cane because they have cash. They pay farmers what they want not necessarily what they deserve,” he asserted.
He said that he understands what the farmers have been going through after the company took long to pay them back due to lack of cash, a problem which was sorted out by the national government.
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He added that one third of what the national government brought has already been dispatched to farmers and the payment is still ongoing.
“We appreciate that farmers have been pressed of cash, payments have not been prompt and we found that the company did not have cash but the government helped as with some cash and we have already started paying farmers and we are still continuing with payments,” he reiterated.
“So far there is a decrease in production not because of mechanical breakdown but because it lacks enough cane and all that is brought about by poachers who buy farmers cane with little cash,” said Ameyo
He also thanked the president and his deputy for injecting cash into the company hence enabling them to pay farmers their debts.
“To those who want to engage us by poaching our cane we are reviewing the legal environment that exist in this area and doing so very thoroughly, soon we will meet in the corridors of justice as to whether the conduct you are engaging here is consistent with the law,” Ameyo affirmed.