The Mumias Sugar factory. FILE PHOTO | NMG
Mumias Sugar Company will restart supplying
the market with ethanol after a five-month absence, using imports of
molasses from Tanzania to supplement its limited stock.
Chief
executive officer Nashion Aseka says the processing started last week
as the company eyes to grow its revenue by diversifying to other
streams.
The company is producing 187,000 litres of ethanol. It operates only four days in a week due to shortage of sugar cane.
“We
have started processing molasses and we are also in the process of
shipping in more from Tanzania to supplement the little that we are
getting from our plant,” said Mr Aseka.
He said the
troubled firm will be importing molasses, the raw material for making
alcohol, from Kagera factory in Bukoba, Tanzania. It will be shipped
through Lake Victoria.
The firm suspended importation
in June, citing high cost of molasses from neighbouring countries,
saying the production was no longer economically viable.
The
price of molasses had shot up to Sh14,000 a tonne in July with Mumias
arguing that for the business to be profitable, the cost of the raw
material (that has since fallen) should be at least Sh6,000.
According
to the miller’s financial statement for last year, ethanol is the only
product that registered growth in revenue in six months to December
2016, having risen by four per cent to Sh453 million compared with Sh435
million during a similar period the previous year.
The company resorted to importing raw material for its lucrative ethanol plant as shortage of sugar cane hampered production.
Mumias
has an ethanol plant with capacity for 120,000 litres and requires
about 300 tonnes of molasses daily to operate optimally. The miller has
been struggling financially in recent years, its miseries worsened by an
acute shortage of raw material.
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