More land to boost sugar output

HENRY LYIMO in Dodoma

THE government has earmarked 294,000 hectares of land for investments in sugarcane plantations to boost sugar production and meet growing demand.

The Minister for Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, Mr Mwigulu Nchemba, said in Parliament here yesterday that land has been earmarked in Kagera, Kigoma, Morogoro, Mara, Mtwara, Coast and Tanga regions.
He noted that under the ‘Big Result Now initiative’, the land would be allocated to investors through tendering arrangement under the Tanzania Investment Centre (TIC).
He said the government has processed a title deed for Kitengule Farm in Kagera Region through Kagera Sugar Company Limited with a view to increase sugar production.
The minister informed MPs that the government has launched a promotion campaign to attract investors for small and medium scale sugar plants, which would help sugarcane growers.
To curb dumping of industrial sugar in the market for domestic use, Mr Nchemba said the government had introduced a refundable 15 per cent duty to sugar importers, who will confirm with Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) on the use of sugar they have imported.
On transit sugar, which is deviated to the domestic market, the minister said the government had formed a task force under TRA coordination to manage control of transit sugar.
The task force includes security and defence organs as well as Tanzania Ports Authority (TPA). Among other things, the task force would be following up on the transit sugar from when it enters customs bonded warehouse until when it crosses the border, he said. TRA has established cargo tracking electronic system to track consignments of transit sugar until they cross border to their final destination.
He told the House that actual demand for sugar in the country was 420,000 tonnes annually for domestic sugar and 170,000 tonnes for industrial sugar. Mr Nchemba asserted that local sugar production was on the upswing to meet growing demand.
The local production of the commodity reached 304,007 tonnes in the 2014/2015 financial year up from 294,300 tonnes in the 2013/2014 financial year. According to him, up to March 29, production had reached 290,112 tonnes against projections of 288,802 tonnes for 2015/2016.
The government said last week it would import 100,000 metric tonnes of sugar to avert a looming shortage and drive down prices that have been increasing.
The Prime Minister, Mr Kassim Majaliwa, said in Parliament that the sugar to be imported would be enough to end the reported shortage and also protect local producers.
“I want to assure Tanzanians that the situation is going to get back to normal very soon.
We decided to import 100,000 tonnes of sugar only to avoid crippling the business of our local producers,” he said, adding that currently the country has a stock of 37,000 tonnes of sugar.