Morogoro — THE country’s frequent sugar crisis maybe a thing of the past as government is making every effort to address the deficit.
The main remedy that the Ministry of Agriculture seeks now is to increase industrial intake of raw sugarcane from the country’s out-growers for processing and increasing sugar output.
“This is the final year for the ministry to issue sugar import permits because next year, we are expecting enough production of sugar to address the existing gap,” Agriculture Minister Prof Adolf Mkenda said on Monday during his visit to the Kilombero Sugar Company Ltd in Morogoro Region.
Currently, the country imports between 40,000 and 50,000 tonnes of sugar annually to bridge the gap of the sugar demand.
Sugar importation has drastically been reduced since President John Magufuli ascended to the highest office on land in 2015 when the annual import was over 120,000 tonnes.
While the country suffers from the sugar deficit, the sugarcane growers struggle to get markets for their produce due to the low processing capacity of the sugar industries.
Prof Mkenda noted that about 350,000 tonnes of sugarcane from Kilombero farmers are not processed as they rely on selling their produce to Kilombero Sugar Company Limited, which still has low production capacity.
This amount of unprocessed sugar could produce 35,000 tonnes of sugar, if processed, and thus address the existing sugar gap.
Prof Mkenda, along with his Permanent Secretary Gerald Kusaya, have embarked on a strategic visit to sugar industries in Morogoro Region with the aim of ensuring that the industries increase intake of raw sugarcane to enable farmers get markets and increase sugar output.
The Minister stated that it was surprising to see that the country suffers from sugar shortage, while hundreds of thousands of sugarcane from farmers have been left to rot due to lack of market.
“These industries must increase their processing capacity, and if they fail, we would know what to do in ensuring that next year the country meets its sugar demand,” he stated, adding that the sugar crisis needed collaborative efforts from both the government and industrialists.
The management of Kilombero Sugar Company Ltd told the minister about its ongoing process to establish a new sugar processing plant with a total investment of 584bn/-.
The company’s Director of Finance, Mr Fakihi Fadhili, explained that the new facility will have capacity of processing 420 tonnes of sugarcane per hour, thus increasing intake of sugarcane from farmers to 2.4 million tonnes annually.
According to Mr Fadhili, the new plant would therefore produce between 265,000 and 271,000 tonnes of sugar annually.
The process to establish the plant started in 2017 and the plant is expected to start operation in July, 2023.
However, the time set for starting production did not please the minister, who said that was too far.
“2023 is too late, complete negotiations with your shareholders so that you get the new plant soonest, we want production,” he told the management, adding that the ministry was also ready to empower outgrowers.
Speaking about what sugarcane farmers have been going through, Mikumi lawmaker Denis Londo said the issue of the market was really troubling farmers.
Mr Londo alleged that sugar industries were dragging their feet to increase sugar production due to their own interest of making more profit through importing the sweetener.
“These industries find that importing sugar, which is a byproduct, was more profitable than what they produce,” he said.
He also criticized the Kilombero Sugar Company Limited for setting 2023 as the timeframe for the new plant to start production.
“Speaking of 2023 means that millions of tonnes of sugarcane will still lack market during these two years, will farmers continue leaving their produce to decay all this time?” he asked.
Earlier, when giving an overview about the trend of agricultural production in Morogoro Region, the Regional Administrative Secretary Mr Emmanuel Kalobelo said the region has a total of 2.2 million hectares of arable land, but so far only 960,000 hectares in use.
Sugarcane was among commercial crops that the region mostly cultivates.
Mr Kalobelo noted that three sugar industries currently operate, including Kilombero Sugar Company with two plants with capacity of producing 126,000 tonnes of sugar annually and Mtibwa Sugar Company with 50,000 tonnes annual production capacity.
The region also expects to increase another two sugar industries, known as Mkulazi 1 and Mkulazi 2.