The government last week appointed the inaugural Sugar Industry Stakeholders’ Council, marking a milestone in Uganda’s industrial development, positioning the sugar sector to expand production, enhance value addition, and strengthen domestic and export markets.
The 10-member council includes Mr Rajbir Singh Rai as the chairperson, while members who are outgrowers are Mr Robert Atugonza, Ms Elizabeth Mbeiza, and Ms Santa Joyce Laker. Three millers, who are Mayur Muljibhai Madhvani, Milan Dobaria Vithalbhai, and Ashish Monpara, are also on the council.
Other members are Dr Swidiz Mugerwa from the Agriculture ministry, Mr Ramathan Ggoobi from the Finance ministry, and Ms Lynette B Bagonza as the secretary.
Their appointment was approved by Cabinet on October 6, and they will initially serve for two years. Mr Grace Musenjja, an agricultural extension field staff in Kamuli District, Busoga Sub-region, said the council should have been in place earlier.
‘Sugarcane growers cut off vegetation cover and the council should ask them to plant replacement,’ he said in an interview on Monday.
Sugarcane is the main cash crop in Busoga Sub-region, and has attracted a number of sugar mills, including Kakira Sugar works (Jinja), Mayuge sugar factory (Mayuge), Kamuli Sugar Limited (Kamuli), Kaliro Sugar Limited (Kaliro), GM Sugar Factory (Buikwe), Bugiri Sugar (Bugiri), CN sugar (Namayingo), and Kidera Sugar (Buyende).
However, farmers have for long grappled with fluctuation of prices of sugarcane, prompting Dr Joseph Muvawala, the Katuukiro (prime minister) of Busoga Kingdom, to seek President Museveni’s intervention during the official opening of Busoga Lukiiko (parliament) at the kingdom headquarters in Bugembe, Jinja City last February.
In 2017, however, the millers started offering Shs175,000 per tonne of raw cane to farmers, which further dropped to Shs96,000 in 2021 In 2023, the price rose to Shs240,000 per tonne up to December that year.
However, by last August, the price had again reduced to Shs90,000 per tonne in August 2024. Dr Muvawala sought a price formula so that sugarcane by-products, including biogas, ethanol, and fertilisers, among others, are calculated, rather than considering sugar as the only byproduct.
Issues
Mr Isa Budhugo, the chairperson of the Busoga Sugarcane Growers Association, has tabled a raft of issues that he wants the newly-inaugurated council to immediately deal with, including the five percent deductions, weighbridges, and registration.
Mr Budhugo said the issue of five percent deductions must go, adding that it was solved by the President.
‘We want the council to fully tackle that issue; that when a farmer supplies, say, 10 tonnes of sugarcane, they remain 10 (tonnes). The five percent deductions were solved by the President and even the minister of Trade wrote a letter, telling all millers to stop deducting,’ he said.
Mr Budhugo added: ‘I also want the Council to handle the issue of weighbridges. President Museveni said people should be allowed to put them where they want, and sugarcane be weighed at the farm to avoid losses to the farmer, allow market access and reduce transport costs incurred by the farmer.” He also said farmers want to be allowed to sell their sugarcane anywhere because ‘we are in a competitive world’.
Mr Budhugo is strongly opposed to the attachment of farmers, especially independent ones, to a miller.
‘Independent farmers should be allowed to sell their cane. The council can only know the number of farmers and acreage, while only contracted farmers should be attached to millers. Imagine, if you register your cane to miller X and it matures, you are obliged to sell it there or face imprisonment of up to six years,’ he said.
Mr Budhugo also revealed that he is going to convene a meeting with the farmers to get more issues they want addressed, after which he will table them before the sugar council.
Mr Michael Imaka Mugabira, a sugarcane grower, said the Bill prompted them to seek consultations from their counterparts in Tanzania and it is from there that they got ‘vital information’.
‘In a liberalised economy that Uganda advances, we oppose zoning of sugarcane, relocation of new mills to 50 kilometres from the indigenous one and the denial of farmers the right to sell their cane to millers of their choice,’ Mr Mugabira said.
Mr Samuel Bakaki, a sugarcane farmer, welcomed the new council, saying it is going to improve performance.
He, however, urged the council to engage sugarcane farmers to preserve the vegetation cover so that whoever is planting has due consideration of conservation shade.
Council speaks out
Mr Rajbir Singh Rai, the incoming Sugar Industry Stakeholders’ Council chairperson, said the farmers’ issues vary from region-to-region across the country, adding that he can only speak to them once the Council has sat and made some decisions collectively.
‘It makes sense for me to respond only once the council has sat and deliberated on the issues,’ he said, adding that the price of sugar is ‘volatile’, which is why the price of sugarcane under some models has been volatile.
‘The way to solve the volatility and fluctuations is to introduce more structure to the relationship between the outgrowers and millers. So this will be one of the main tasks for the council to consider,’ said Mr Rai.
Background
The appointment of the Sugar Industry Stakeholders’ Council follows the enactment of the Sugar (Amendment) Act No. 6 of 2025, which establishes the council as a corporate body with legal authority to oversee the sector. This was after the State Minister for Trade, Gen Wilson Mbadi, tabled the Sugar Regulations Bill (2025) in the House.
The Bill, among others, aims to operationalise the Sugar Act (2020), monitor sugarcane production and cane farming by outgrowers.