Museveni meets Busoga sugarcane farmers

Dec 22, 2019

Museveni said he had held discussions with Kenya’s president Uhuru Kenyatta and Tanzania’s John Magufuli about the possibility of taking Uganda’s sugar at a cheaper price.

SUGARCANE GROWING        MARKET

 

By John Tugume

 

President Yoweri Museveni has allayed fears among sugarcane farmers in

Busoga region over lack of market for their produce.

 

He met the farmers and other regional leaders at Jinja State

Lodge recently, where he told them that he had discussed the 

issue of market for sugar with East African leaders.

 

Museveni said he had held discussions with Kenya's president Uhuru Kenyatta and

Tanzania's John Magufuli about the possibility of taking Uganda's sugar

at a cheaper price.

 

The President also emphasised that farmers should not worry about

market for their sugarcane because there were other options.

 

He, for instance, said he had talked to the Speaker of Parliament,

Rebecca Kadaga, about the possibility of setting up mills, which would

process sugarcane into other products, such as fuel, sanitary pads,

paper and syrup.

 

"I have figures for sugar imports of Uganda - 76 million kilogrammes of

sugar worth $41m. So, you wonder if you have got so much sugar, why are

we importing sugar? I was suspecting that this sugar is special sugar

for use by beverage companies," the President said.

 

"We need to refine our sugar to the standard of being used by beverage

companies that make soda," he added.

Museveni with leaders of sugarcane growers in Busoga region during a meeting at Jinja State Lounge

 

 

"The future of sugarcane is bright. Sugarcane farmers should not

panic. They should not worry about market for the cane," Museveni

said, adding that there were plans to process sugarcane into juice.

 

The President castigated the practice of smallholder farmers using

their small pieces of land to grow sugarcane, a practice he said gives rise

to poverty.

 

He also said those who lease out their small portions of land would

rather use it for other forms of agriculture.

 

The President promised to meet such farmers in the future to discuss the

best land usage practices.

 

Museveni's meeting came months after he rejected signing the

Sugar Bill 2016 into law over failure to allow zoning.

 

Zoning means a sugar factory will be kilometres away from the other.

There are several sugar factories in Busoga, such as Kakira Sugar

Limited, Sugar and Allied Industries Limited in Kaliro, Kamuli

Sugar, Mayuge Sugar, as well as GM sugar in Njeru and Sugar Corporation

of Uganda Limited at Lugazi in neighbouring Buikwe district.

 

In the Bill, the Government had proposed a zone of 25km between mills,

with no more than one mill in that zone and out-growers in that area

only supplying sugarcane to the mill.

 

The Sugar Bill seeks to provide for the development, regulation and

promotion of the sugar industry.

 

However, the MPs removed the zoning bit before passing the Bill.

 

However, Museveni said he was not happy with the MPs for passing the Bill

without considering the interests of the big sugar manufacturers.

 

According to the Busoga Sugarcane Out growers' Association chairperson,

Issa Budhugo, out growers are spread all over the sub-region, but with

majority in Jinja, Mayuge, Luuka, Iganga, Kamuli, Kaliro and Bugiri

districts.

 

"The price of sugarcane ranges between sh95,000 and sh110,000 per tonne

at the different factories," Budhugo said. 

 

Earlier, a tonne had risen up to sh175,000.

 

Mid this year, out growers under their association had secured

permission to sell their canes to a factory in western Kenya, but many

pulled out after encountering a number of hurdles, including being arrested by Kenyan authorities.