By Varstine Nasuuna
Kampala: The trade, industry and cooperatives minister Amelia Kyambadde, has opposed the proposal of exporting unprocessed raw materials like sugarcane to Kenya.
While presenting a statement in parliament on issues of excess sugarcane in Busoga sub-region on Friday, Kyambadde said exportation of unprocessed sugarcane would hamper industrial growth and Uganda’s policy encourages value addition to products produced locally. She argued that although Busoga sub-region has recorded 500,000 tons of excess sugarcane in the last two months, the local sugar millers can process all the mature sugarcane. Kyambadde noted that the excess sugarcane supply was caused by the suspension of sugarcane processing by Sugar Corporation of Uganda limited (SCOUL) and Kakira sugar works, to carry out annual routine maintenance of their machinery. She said that to make matters worse, Mayuge Sugar, Kamuli Sugar and G.M Sugar Ltd factories reported machine breakdowns, which have left farmers mulling over the option of exporting their sugarcane to Kenya.
On average, the six sugar milling companies in Busoga have installed capacity of crushing between 1,000 to 7,000 tons of sugarcane daily. From the 20 licensed companies, about 650 million metric tons of sugarcane is milled to produce 600,000 metric tons of sugar annually. However, Kyambadde said that between 2014 and 2018, the factories have been milling about 430 million metric tons of sugarcane and producing 410,000 metric tons of sugar annually. She said that 2014, sugar production has been declining due to lack of sugarcane supply to the sugar mills amidst increased installed capacities. According to Kyambadde, both the millers and farmers will make losses because experts recommend that harvested sugarcane must be processed within 36 hours, otherwise, the weight of the sugarcane deteriorates the longer it remains unprocessed.
Her statement stems from a proposal by Busoga Sugarcane Out Growers asking government to issue them permits to export sugarcane to sugar millers in neighboring Kenya. The Out Growers claim that the low the demand from the sugar millers in Uganda could affect the quality of their mature sugarcane. Bugabula west Member of Parliament, Henry Kibalya and Bunya South MP Robert Ntende presented the Out Growers’ proposal to the House on Tuesday. To ensure that the problem of excess sugarcane supply does not arise in future, Kyambadde said the millers shouldn’t undertake maintenance at the same time. However, the Bulamogi county MP Kenneth Lubogo disagreed that exporting sugarcane will cause scarcity in Uganda. He urges that the sugar milling factories lack the capacity to crush all the excess cane. Kyambadde pledged to present a more comprehensive statement to the House on how the sugar mills will address the issue of excess sugarcane. On Wednesday, the chairman for Uganda Sugar Manufacturers Association, (USMA) Jim Kabeho downplayed the outcry on low sugar production, saying that the situation will normalize after two weeks when all six factories in Busoga resume operations.
