The minister for Agriculture, Prof Adolf Mkenda, disclosed yesterday that the government was issuing permits to companies to import sugar for the last time this year, urging the sugar board to start importing the sweetener next year. The comment signals change in the government policy, which has been allowing traders to import sugar to offset the shortages. Recent reports indicate that Tanzania’s demand for domestic sugar was 470,000 metric tons, while the country’s five sugar processing factories had the capacity of producing 378,000 tonnes in 2019. Prof Mkenda, who visited Kilombero Sugar and talk to farmers in Morogoro, said sugar imports were cheaper but the business had become like “drug dealing.” “Sugar is starting to look like drugs dealing or mafia. We want it to be imported by these companies but for the last time this year. The sugar board will start importing sugar,” he said.
Commenting on the sugar shortages, he said the crisis in the country is not due to lack of sugarcane but the lack of investors to process sugarcane. “There are a lot of farmers growing sugarcane but unfortunately the country has no sugar. Tanzanians are surprised that we have farmers producing enough sugarcane but we are importing sugar,” said. The factory which produces 128,000 tonnes of sugar per year is owned by private investor Illovo which holds 75 percent of the shares with the balance of shares owned by the government of Tanzania. Kilombero Sugar Company Ltd board chairman Ami Mpungwe said the sugar industry has many stories which he could not tell, saying some are distorted. He said there had been rumours that the company was down-playing the importance of smallholder farmers, stressing that it was not true. Currently, the factory which was established in 1960 and privatized in 1998 receives 612,000 tonnes of sugarcane from large and small-scale farmers. “It should not be the case that someone thinks he loves small sugarcane farmers than Kilombero. The success of smallholder farmers is our success and if anyone thinks we are ignoring the farmers, that is misleading,” he said.
He said both Kilombero plants currently produce 128,000 tonnes of sugar per year. He thanked President John Magufuli for overseeing the sugar market and creating a favorable environment for the expansion of sugarcane cultivation and sugar production. “The government has given us a chance to do things that can be done,” he said. Morogoro Regional Administrative Secretary Mr Emmanuel Kalobelo said the region produces two major crops which are rice and sugarcane. He said sugarcane production was high compared to the factory’s ability to produce sugar. “This situation poses a challenge for farmers,” he said. Last week, the government said in Parliament that it’s discussing with its partners in the factory to expand production and accommodate the sugarcane produced in the region.