Uganda has blocked a request to export excess sugar cane from outgrowers in Busoga region to Kenya.
Farmers say they have an overproduction of some 500,000 tones of sugar that processors are unable to absorb but the Minister for Trade, Industry and Co-operatives Amelia Kyambadde says the surplus is only temporary and should not cause alarm.
Ms Kyambadde told parliament that sugar factories in Uganda have been producing below capacity since 2010 due to a shortage of cane and that opening up the market to neighbouring countries like Kenya would worsen this problem.
She, however, added that the surplus will be easy to absorb since Ugandan sugar manufacturers have the capacity to crush 650 million tonnes of cane and had been forced to perform below capacity due to shortages.
Ugandan sugar factories are said to crush an annual average of 430 million tonnes of cane, meaning they are operating at around 70 per cent.
