Retail Launchpad: From Cane to Market

You’ve worked hard on quality. Now make it pay.

Kenya’s cane belt produces excellent sugarcane and jaggery, yet most of it leaves the farm unbranded and underpriced. The difference between a farm-gate price and a shelf price comes down to the business side: knowing your costs, getting registered and licensed, packing for retail, handling export paperwork and moving goods to the buyer.

Retail Launchpad: From Cane to Market is a practical one-day course that covers exactly that. Run by Sacoma Food School the day after the Sugar Industry Innovation Symposium & Expo 2026, it helps you turn what you heard at the Symposium into a 90-day plan for your own product.

• Know your numbers: true cost per kg, pricing and break-even
• Get compliant: business registration, Kenya
  Sugar Board licensing, KEBS standards and county health requirements
• Retail-ready packaging and labelling
• Export documents for EAC, COMESA and AfCFTA markets
• Logistics, Incoterms and getting paid safely
• Your own 90-day launch plan, reviewed by
  facilitators

• Sugarcane farmers and outgrower groups
• Jaggery producers and small mill operators
• Sugar re-packers and brown-sugar brands
• Cooperatives, youth and women’s groups in the cane belt
• By-product entrepreneurs (molasses, cane juice, bagasse, organic fertiliser)

Do I need to attend the Symposium? No. The course is open to everyone, though delegates will find it a natural next step.

What language is it in? English and Kiswahili.

Should I bring anything? A sample of your product and your current price list if you have one.

Can my cooperative send several members? Yes, use the group rate.