By Joyce Alikoba
Sugarcane farmers under the umbrella of the Busoga Sugarcane Growers Cooperative Union are demanding stable sugarcane prices as a way of averting a possible crisis within the industry.
While addressing journalists in Busoga sub region on Tuesday, the farmers observed that price stability will improve the viability of the sugar industry within hosting communities and safeguard farmers from manipulation by middlemen and sudden price falls.
The price of a metric ton of sugarcane has sharply dwindled from between UGX 210,000 and 240,000 to UGX 150,000 and UGX 170,000.
The price of processed sugar fell from UGX 250,000 to UGX 190,000 at wholesale, forcing most sugar manufacturers to reduce the price of raw materials (sugarcane) in Uganda.
Their Interim National Chairperson, Issa Budhugo, also cited a possible return to the sugar crisis seen between 2018 and mid-2022, where sugarcane prices fell from 123,000 to 25,000 shillings per tonne. He said that the crisis derailed farmers and forced most of them to clear their farms and opt for other crops, which has resulted in the prevailing sugarcane scarcity.
Budhugo notes that without assurance on sugarcane prices, the industry will be continuously controlled by syndicated rackets of processed sugar smugglers in East Africa and beyond, middlemen, poachers, and millers without sugarcane plantations, as well as registered-out grower farmers, whom he accuses of manipulating the rules of demand and supply to deliberately push native farmers out of the industry.
He argues that much as the Sugar Act abolished zoning and offered them a free market economy, to easily sell off cane to their preferred buyers, non-compliant millers, processed sugar smugglers independently decide on the final tonnage prices without factoring in the costs of production.
Isaac Suubi, a sugarcane farmer from Kamuli district, says that the farmers are currently not enjoying a sense of relief, with prices ranging from UGX 150,000 to UGX 170,000 per tonne, which will deter smallholder farmers from embracing the industry. He adds that, however, without clear price definitions, the prices will negatively derail farmers in the course of the anticipated bumper harvests during the forthcoming seasons.
Samuel Akalyamawa, a sugarcane farmer from Buyengo Town Council, says that multiple established millers no longer offer subsidies in terms of agricultural inputs and transport trucks to the farmers, which further reduces the profit margin for the farmers. This is only done in the Bunyoro region by Kinyara Sugar Limited, which pays a higher price of UGX 160,000 per ton of sugarcane in addition to subsidized farm inputs.
Akalyamawa added that the government should be intentional about setting up a task force to encourage millers without plantations and out-growers’ schemes to transparently disclose the sources of sugarcane. This should also go to processed sugar smugglers, who should be reigned over if sugarcane prices stabilize in Uganda.
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