Uganda’s sugarcane farmers have called off a nearly three-week strike after sugar millers agreed to negotiate a price increase for the raw material. Farmers, who supply about 80% of the sugarcane to the country’s sugar mills, had not supplied any cane since July 7 after the prices had reduced, reports Monitor.
Mr Julius Katerevu, the chairperson of the Greater Mukono Sugarcane Outgrowers Cooperative, announced that they have agreed to resume supplying cane to the millers as negotiations continue for one month. However, he warned that if millers fail to meet their demands within one month, they will resume their strike in September. “We can’t accept to be exploited by the millers; we currently make a loss of between Shs70,000 to Shs100,000 per tonne with the current prices and are ready to resume the strike in case they don’t respond positively,” Mr Katerevu said in an interview on Saturday, providing insight into a meeting they earlier had with millers.
The meeting, convened last week, was chaired by the Commissioner in the Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Cooperatives, Mr Denis Ainebyoona, at Farmers House in Kampala. “We agreed to resume the supply of sugarcane because the Ministry is liaising with the millers to ensure that they increase the purchase prices of cane,” Mr Katerevu said.
According to Mr. Katerevu, the Ministry, among other key concessions, promised to finalize the Sugar Bill (2023). The Sugar Bill (2023) aims to protect farmers, especially on the pricing formula, establish the Uganda Sugar Industry Stakeholder Council—which will replace and inherit the duties of the Sugar Board created by the Sugar Act (2020)—and regulate the sector.
Regarding the new pricing formula, Mr Katerevu believes it will offer a solution by introducing a new model of calculating sugarcane prices sold to millers based on international standards. “During the meeting, we had in Kampala, we told the millers that we want a 70-per cent share of sugar from the cane and a 50-per cent stake in other products like bagasse, molasses, fertilizer, sweets, and ethanol, among others,” Mr Katerevu said.
The Chairperson of the Uganda Sugarcane Growers Association, Mr Isa Budhugo, noted that their strike had a 97 per cent success rate because, except for Kakira Sugar Limited, most factories had closed operations. “I have advised the farmers to resume the supply of cane as they wait for the millers’ response, but if they don’t increase the prices, I will again mobilize the farmers to halt the supply of raw cane for another 30 days,” Mr Budhugo said.
