Cane shortage forces Atiak Sugar Factory to close
AMURU– Atiak Sugar Factory, a subsidiary of Horyal Investment Holding Company Ltd [ HIHC ], has temporarily stopped manufacturing sugar due to the shortage of sugarcane in the area.
The factory has the capacity to crush 1,650 tons of raw sugarcane daily, producing 66,000 tons of sugar annually.
Since its establishment, the sugar factory has suffered a number of fire outbreaks, leading to losses, President Museveni having commissioned it in October 2020.
For instance, the 2020 police annual crime report indicates that the factory incurred a loss worth Shs 3billion due to the fire outbreaks in 2019. In total, the company is said to have lost over Shs 33bln in sugarcane consumed by the fires over the years.
Ahmed Mahmood, the director of operations at Atiak Sugar Factory confirmed the development, saying they have temporarily halted sugar production because of the low supply of sugarcanes.
About 15,000 outgrowers were planned to supply the factory with sugarcane, according to Uganda Development Corporation which has 40 percent shares in HIHC.
Mahmood said that the company is currently waiting for the cane plantations to mature before they can resume the production of sugar.
“It`s not a big problem as such because we are waiting for the canes to mature. We are a factory and so we need raw materials. If they are not there, there`s nothing we can do. Currently, we are doing general maintenance on our equipment,” Mahmood told this reporter.
In 2020, the factory started commercial production of sugar with cane supply from both Amuru and Lamwo districts.
Through the National Agricultural Advisory Services [NAADS], the government spent up to Shs 52bln to facilitate bush clearance, land preparation, cane seeds planting and weeding of the cane plantation.
Anthony Akol, the Kilak North Member of Parliament told this reporter that closing the factory would have a negative impact on the local businesses, and casual and technical labourers who were directly or indirectly employed by the factory.
According to Akol, leaders are in preparations to engage the government to help the factory financially so that it can buy sugarcane from Busoga sub-region.
In 2020, the government injected Shs 16bln for transportation of cane from Busoga sub region to meet the crushing capacity of the factory that officially started production in August 2020.
The factory, which is a public-private partnership, project set aside 12,000 acres [20 percent of the entire project land] for sugarcane cultivation by the women. The land was provided to the project by the cooperatives.
Communities own the land and harvest the sugarcane. In turn, the factory provides seeds, oversee planting, process the sugarcane, and purchase it from the farmers.
In phase one, the factory was also supposed to use products such as molasses and bagasse to produce ethanol and up to 6MW of electricity.
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