Nairobi, Feb. 3 -- Sugar millers have been locked out of the multi-billion-shilling duty-free sugar imports window.

The move by the Sugar Directorate is based on the 2017 occurrence where millers abandoned buying and processing sugarcane from farmers after they were allowed to bring in the commodity outside of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) without paying duty.

The move subjected farmers to huge losses as sugarcane that was ready for harvesting was left on farms for long as millers concentrated on repackaging and selling imported sugar, which the regulator says is way cheaper when compared with milling.

"We have received a number of applications from millers who want to import sugar but we have made a delibe...