AfricaPress-Tanzania: KILOMBERO Sugar Company (KSC) has signed a one year roll over cane supply agreement with associations of Kilombero cane growers that would provide operational guidelines for the two parties including quality of cane supplied, quantity and prices.
Speaking at the signing ceremony held at Kilombero Sugar Company premises on Tuesday, KSC Growers Development Manager, Job Zahoro said the sugar company’s management acknowledges the contribution of Kilombero cane growers who supply 45 per cent of the total cane needed by the sugar factory.
This is why they worked on putting in place an agreement for both parties to formalise and coordinate the process of supplying cane to the factory.
“We signed the last three-year cane supply agreement but this time around we decided to extend for one year due to the fact that our anticipated expansion project will change many aspects of our operations including the quantity of cane needed and technology,” he said.
He added, “Therefore, by the end of this year’s agreement, we will have to sit down with growers to discuss challenges and changes of operations that will be affected by expansion.”
The KSC Head of Growers Department, Hans Veenstra said the decision to sign the one-year agreement was mainly due to the new factory expansion which was unfortunately put on hold due to the global pandemic.
“We all know that it is a set of rules that guides us through our daily operational processes. More importantly though, here at KSC we see Kilombero Growers as key stakeholders in our business and we remain committed to a stronger relationship with our growers going into the future.
This will be our key business objective and we look forward into this going to the many seasons ahead,” said Veenstra.
He added, “We will now enter into a new long term cane supply agreement which will also encompass the possibility of the new mill expansion. The new agreement ensures that all stakeholders in Kilombero valley, our community, our growers and KSC grow successfully and sustainably into the many decades ahead.”
Speaking on behalf of Kilombero cane growers, Bakari Mkangamo said they are pleased by the cane supply agreements they have been signing with the sugar company considering that the agreements are beneficial to them and also provides them with guidelines as well as guaranteeing them markets for their cane.
“We are pleased to sign another cane supply agreement with Kilombero Sugar because this gives us a guarantee that the sugar company will purchase our cane, and also through this agreement we get to address challenges facing us and outline how the challenges in question would be addressed by both parties,” said Mkangamo.
