A Sticky Situation: What's Happening to the Kenya Sugar Industry?
Episode Summary
As Kenya's election season kicks into high gear, the sugar industry—a major employer and source of revenue for the country—is once again in the news. Why are sugar millers in court, and how does a country that grows at least as much raw sugarcane as its neighbors produce only a small fraction for consumption? To explore these and other questions, the LINKCast team talks to the farmers and processors closest to this story, piecing together the policy challenges facing the sugar industry and what the Kenyan government is doing to address them.
Sources
a. Kenya’s sugar history: https://www.kalro.org/sugar/?q=sugar-history
b. Parliament report on sugar crisis Kenya: http://www.parliament.go.ke/sites/default/files/2019-08/Report%20on%20the%20Crisis%20Facing%20the%20Sugar%20Industry%20in%20Kenya%20%28%20Annexures%29.pdf
c. Top sugar-producing countries: https://www.czarnikow.com/blog/the-sugar-series-the-top-10-sugar-producing-countries-in-the-world
d. Problems facing the sugar industry https://allafrica.com/stories/202105240177.html and https://www.sucam.co.ke/sugar-policy/sucam-policy-position
e. The story of sugar: https://www.sugar.org/blog/a-brief-history-of-real-sugar-the-story-of-sugar-cane/