Sugar refinery to save Uganda Shs175b annually, says Museveni

President Museveni has said Uganda loses $50 million (about Shs175b) through importing refined sugar, which is used in factories for production of soft drinks and medicines, among others.

The President, who at the weekend commissioned Uganda’s first sugar industrial plant in Masindi District, said the country will now become an exporter of refined sugar to the entire East African region whose demand is 150,000 metric tonnes.

“I will negotiate with these East African countries to buy our industrial sugar. And for us here, we are going to put a tax as soon as possible on the imported industrial sugar,” Mr Museveni said.

The $15 million Kinyara Industrial White Sugar Refinery plant constructed by Kinyara Sugar Ltd in Bujenje, Masindi District, will produce 60,000 metric tonnes of industrial white sugar annually, while consuming about 70,000 metric tonnes of mill brown sugar as raw material. 

However, this is still below the local demand for industrial sugar, which ranges from 78,000 metric tonnes to 90,000 metric tonnes annually, according to the Trade minister, Mr Francis Mwebesa.

But the President assured Ugandan manufacturers of market for their surplus sugar amounting to 220,000 metric tonnes out of the 600,000 metric tons produced annually with local consumption at 380,000 metric tonnes.

“Our East African brothers can buy this sugar because the deficit they have is much bigger than this surplus. So I’m working with them…talking with H.E Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya, H.E Samia Suluhu Hassan of Tanzania and now with Rwanda to solve this issue,” Mr Museveni said.

Consumers of industrial white sugar such as beverage manufacturers, bakeries, confectionaries and pharmaceuticals will be able to obtain white sugar due to the reduced time between order and delivery. 

In addition to the 12,000 directly and indirectly employed persons, the refinery will provide an additional 150 jobs.

Minister Mwebesa said his ministry has licensed six other companies to produce refined industrial sugar and are at different stages of implementation. They include Sugar Corporation of Uganda, GM Sugar Ltd, Mayuge Sugar Industries, Kamuli Sugar Ltd and Uganda Group of Industries Ltd. The board chairperson of Kinyara Sugar Limited, Mr Sarbjit Singh Rai, said the refinery will also create employment opportunities at the factory whose number of both direct and indirect employees has increased from 4,000 to 12,000.