Mumias Sugar Company
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ocated in the Western Province on importation and aim for self-sufficiency of Kenya, Mumias is home to one when it comes to sugar production. of the country’s largest and most The company’s original factory possessed established businesses, Mumias a capacity of 45,000 tonnes of sugar per year Sugar Company. The history of when it was fully operational in 1973. In the company dates back to 1967, when the the decades since the operation has grown government of Kenya first commissioned dramatically giving Mumias Sugar Company Booker Agriculture and Technical Services a facility with a capacity of 173,000 tonnes to carry out a feasibility study on the viability of sugar and 1.8 million tonnes of cane of growing sugarcane in Mumias, before then crushed per year. initiating a pilot project. Mumias Sugar Company’s production It is fair to say that at the time the Mumias process comprise of cane production, sugar area was one of Kenya’s more underdeveloped production, cogeneration and the production locations, typified by the fact of molasses. Cane farming that what land was used accounts for approximately was only done so by farmers 80 percent of the production growing crops for subsistence of farm produce in the sugar and grazing animals. zone, and this provides While poor land utilisation, up to 90 percent of the total coupled with the remoteness cane that the company uses of the area and virtually nonas raw material. The cane Of sugar produced existent communications itself is then used to produce annually from the the primary products of infrastructure, had until company’s Mumias that point deterred economic Mumias Sugar. factory activity in Mumias, the fact Mumias Sugar Company is that land adjudication had today responsible for between been carried out and farmers had freehold 60 and 65 percent of the total amount of title to their land attracted the interest of the sugar produced annually in Kenya. This also government due to its favourable conditions makes it the largest sugar manufacturing operation in all of East Africa. Producing for sugarcane development. On 1 July, 1971, Mumias Sugar Company both industrial sugars for local firms and was formally incorporated as the body that table sugar for individual use, the company’s would be responsible for implementing the primary markets for its products also include project. The main objectives of establishing Tanzania, Uganda and other surrounding the company were to provide a source of nations. Meanwhile, Mumias Sugar is income for farmers, create job opportunities recognised as one of East Africa’s top 100 in the local area, help curb rural-urban brands. The company also exports some of its migration, reduce Kenya’s overdependence sugar to international markets mainly in the
173,000 tonnes