Government to set up sugar factory in Kamuli

Government will establish a sugar factory in Kamuli as part of its plans to improve the standard of living of the people in the region.

The plan follows various petitions to the Speaker of Parliament, Rebecca Kadaga, from several sugarcane outgrowers, who said that there is a lot of cane being grown in the Busoga region that goes unconsumed by the millers.

This comes after various petitions from the Busoga sugarcane out growers Association, this year to the Speaker, stating that there is a lot of cane being grown in the Busoga region and it’s not consumed by the millers.

Petitioners were also concerned about the low sugarcane prices provided by the millers. In addition, they argued that the cost of production in terms of fertilizers, cultivation and transportation of the cane from the farms to the mills is higher than the payments farmers receive at the end of the chain.

Speaker Kadaga, who was presiding over the plenary sitting of Parliament on Wednesday 18 December 2019, said she had forwarded the petitions to the President seeking help to find a lasting solution to the excess production of sugarcane.

“Sugarcane has no market internally and even externally so government has agreed to build a factory that will be run by indigenous people in the Busoga region, in the same way they have supported the fruit factory in Soroti, the tea factory in Igara and Kanugu,” she said.

She said that all the sugarcane growers will be supported adding that even the small sugarcane holders will be supported with the cottage industries so that they too can have a market.