Two sugar manufacturers have been granted to export 19,500 tonnes to European Union, Uganda and Southern Sudan, the government said.
the firms. Kilombero Sugar Company and Kagera
Sugar Company, were given the grant following the piling up of
tens of thousands of stocks of sugar in the companies’ godowns in Dar
es Salaam and at the premises in Kilombero and Kagera.
Already, due to the fact that warehouses
in Dar es Salaam have piled up with the commodity, the company has had
to pile up the other tonnes of sugar outside its factory in Kilombero.
Details emerging from a meeting between
the Minister for Agriculture, Food Security and Co-operatives, Engineer
Christopher Chiza with sugar companies in Dodoma on Thursday show that
the two sugar firms could no longer withstand the problem.
The minister said the companies were
allowed to offload part of the unsold sugar to settle the out-growers’
arrears as well bolster their cash flows.
Confirming the reports, the
Chairman of the Sugar Board of Tanzania, Mr Castor Ligarama told the
‘Daily News’ in Dar es Salaam over the weekend that the export licence
given last week has allowed Kilombero Sugar Company to export 10,000
tonnes of sugar to sustain the company’s healthy cash flows.
The Company expects to export the 10,000
tonnes to the European Union markets.
“So it would not be prudent to
leave such a situation to go on and rains come to destroy their sugar
yet we have a better option of letting them export some sugar to the
international markets,” he said.
He said Kagera sugar would sell 9,500
tonnes to regional markets of Uganda and Southern Sudan.
“If sugar piles up, the factory can stop operations and thus not buy cane from the small scale out growers,” said Mr Ligarama.
The country’s sugar consumption stands
at 480,000 tonnes per year but the four factories—Tanganyika Plantation
Company, Kilombero, Kagera and Mtibwa Sugar—produce only 320,000 tonnes,
translating into a current deficit of 160,000 tonnes of sugar that is
filled by importation.
He said importers had been given
importation licence in September to bring in sugar to bridge the gap at
the time but noted that they had delayed to bring in the sugar and by
the time they brought the product in the country, the gap sugar had gone
down already.
In an interview with ‘Daily News’, the
Kilombero Sugar Company Limited Managing Director Mr Don Carter Brown
said it was important for them to be able to sell their sugar so that
their cash flow continues in a sustainable manner.
He said that last season, the company
paid 34.4bn/- to small scale out growers and the money largely remains
in local economy of Morogoro region. He said it was the first time the
firm has faced the challenge of such magnitude with huge consignment of
sugar being stranded.
Source: The Daily News, http://dailynews.co.tz, reported by Orton Kiishweko in Dar es Salaam
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