The Chairman of the Uganda Sugar Cane Technologists Association (USCTA), Richard Orr has said that Uganda failed to meet its sugar production targets for 2010.
Sugarcane plantation
Uganda produced 292,051 tonnes of raw sugar in 2010, 8.2% below the projected 318,000 tonnes forecast for the just ended year.
Orr says the sugar production in the country increased by 1.6% from 287,389 metric tonnes produced in 2009.
He says Uganda experienced bad weather that affected sugar cane production, while at Kakira Sugar Works (KSW), Uganda’s largest sugar producer, output was further affected by failure of a new factory that was not correctly installed.
Kakira sugar output dropped by 4.3 percent to 151,000 tonnes in 2010 from 2009. The year also saw sugarcane out growers of Kakira Sugar Works go on strike over a land dispute.
But Orr who is a manager at Kakira Sugar works disputed reports that the strike had an effect on the company sugar output.
Uganda has three major sugar producers,- Kakira Sugar Works, Kinyara Sugar and the Sugar Corporation of Uganda which also calls itself Lugazi sugar.