Located in the Western Province of Kenya, Mumias is home to one of the country’s largest and most established businesses, Mumias Sugar Company. The history of the company dates back to 1967, when the government of Kenya first commissioned Booker Agriculture and Technical Services to carry out a feasibility study on the viability of growing sugarcane in Mumias, before then initiating a pilot project.
It is fair to say that at the time the Mumias area was one of Kenya’s more underdeveloped locations, typified by the fact that what land was used was only done so by farmers growing crops for subsistence and grazing animals.
While poor land utilisation, coupled with the remoteness of the area and virtually non-existent communications infrastructure, had until that point deterred economic activity in Mumias, the fact that land adjudication had been carried out and farmers had freehold title to their land attracted the interest of the government due to its favourable conditions for sugarcane development.
On 1 July, 1971, Mumias Sugar Company was formally incorporated as the body that would be responsible for implementing the project. The main objectives of establishing the company were to provide a source of income for farmers, create job opportunities in the local area, help curb rural-urban migration, reduce Kenya’s overdependence on importation and aim for self-sufficiency when it comes to sugar production.
The company’s original factory possessed a capacity of 45,000 tonnes of sugar per year when it was fully operational in 1973. In the decades since the operation has grown dramatically giving Mumias Sugar Company a facility with a capacity of 173,000 tonnes of sugar and 1.8 million tonnes of cane crushed per year.
Mumias Sugar Company’s production process comprise of cane production, sugar production, cogeneration and the production of molasses. Cane farming accounts for approximately 80 percent of the production of farm produce in the sugar zone, and this provides up to 90 percent of the total cane that the company uses as raw material. The cane itself is then used to produce the primary products of Mumias Sugar.
Mumias Sugar Company is today responsible for between 60 and 65 percent of the total amount of sugar produced annually in Kenya. This also makes it the largest sugar manufacturing operation in all of East Africa. Producing both industrial sugars for local firms and table sugar for individual use, the company’s primary markets for its products also include Tanzania, Uganda and other surrounding nations. Meanwhile, Mumias Sugar is recognised as one of East Africa’s top 100 brands. The company also exports some of its sugar to international markets mainly in the Europe, with at least 20,000 metric tonnes of sugar being exported annually.
In the eyes of many the reputation that Mumias Sugar Company has carved out for itself has been built on a foundation of having a quality product at the right price, the right weight and the highest level of consumer satisfaction. In staying true to these basic principles the company has helped itself to become a market leader and it is here that it aims to stay.
Retaining this position naturally requires a company to give its customers what they want, the way they want it. Mumias Sugar Company has shown its ability to do this time and again over the years, not least so in its introduction of both white and brown sugar products that cater for the regional preferences that exist in Kenya, where the majority of consumers in the Nairobi region prefer the former, while those in the Mount Kenya and Eastern regions of the country sway more towards the latter.
Another development of interest has seen the company develop and introduce fortified sugar to the marketplace. This particular brand is fortified specifically with Vitamin A, something which resonates strongly with the needs of Kenyan children to have access to products containing important micronutrients that are essentially to a healthy upbringing.
In order to ensure a sustainable income throughout both good and challenging economic times, Mumias Sugar Company has made a very unique effort to diversify part of its business into the power production sector. This initiative came into being back in 2005 when the company’s board approved the exploration of a co-generation electric power production project, which included the construction of an ethanol plant.
The fact of the matter is that in Kenya the demand for electricity far outstrips supply. The company’s co-generation plant is designed to help alleviate this issue somewhat. At present the company has the capacity to produce 34MW of electricity, with 26MW supplied directly to the National Grid, thus supplementing Kenya’s ever increasing domestic demands. On-site power production from the project through bagasse co-generation is currently on the rise, with the company extremely confident that its potential has yet to be fully exploited.
Another positive facet of the company’s move into power production is that its technology allows for the creation of clean energy. This is because its source is primarily the by-product of the sugar production process, a fact that highlights the increasing important of sugar cane as feedstock for ethanol.
Kenya’s sugar industry, and specifically Mumias Sugar Company, has worked hard to take advantage of the concept of bio-refinery technologies or integrated sugar production processes which utilise the entire crop for a variety of environmentally favourable outcomes. Effective use of by-products in an integrated sugar plant diversifies the income stream by adding new intermediate-value and high-value products.
A number of regional factors including limited supplies of crude oil and refining capacity, and rising environmental concerns, have presented Mumias Sugar Company with the perfect opportunity to expand its product range and it is with this in mind that it set about the construction of a distillery plant with the capacity to produce 22 million litres of ethanol annually.
To this day the company continues to champion a number of important social causes, from providing economic opportunities to more than 14,000 cane farmers to investing in the training, health care and education of its employees. It does all this while retaining its leading positions in both the consumer goods and power production markets.
Written by Will Daynes, research by Abi Abagun
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