Africa-Press – Uganda. Traders dealing in molasses in Busoga have turned to Kenya, Burundi, and Tanzania, among other destinations after sugar millers in the sub-region stepped up their production of spirits and hand sanitisers.
Locally, molasses is used to make local potent gin commonly known as waragi , whose production is thriving in Makenke and Mawoito villages in Jinja District, and Wandago in Mayuge District.
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Some of the millers in the sub-region are Kakira Sugar Works (Jinja), Kaliro Sugar (Kaliro), Mayuge Sugar (Mayuge), GM Sugar (Buikwe) and Kamuli Sugar (Kamuli).
Mr Milton Opoka, the general secretary of Alolepipit, a 600-member association in Makenke, said mass production of spirits and sanitisers pushed their search for molasses beyond the border.
“Ever since Kakira Sugar, Sugar Corporation of Uganda Limited (SCOUL), GM Sugar and Mayuge Sugar increased [their capacity to] distill spirits, molasses have been scarce, and when the Covid-19 pandemic struck in March 2020, they diversified to sanitisers,” he said on Tuesday. He added: “Because of that, we resorted to getting the by-product from Kaliro, which hasn’t yet started distilling spirits, and from as far as Kenya, Tanzania and Burundi where it takes over a week to arrive.”
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Ms Janet Ojok, the organisation’s chairperson, said before the pandemic, a tonne of molasses cost between Shs350,000 and Shs400,000, but it now goes for Shs500,000.
“Getting it from Kenya and Burundi is cheaper, but when you add taxes, clearance and transport costs, it comes to almost the same price, although buying from such destinations eliminates unscrupulous middlemen,” she said.
According to Ms Ojok, the scarcity has greatly impacted on their daily operations, considering that most of the women have loans to repay, while others are single mothers.
“We employ about 220 youth to split firewood and fetch water, so when there is no molasses, there is no work, and in most cases, they just sit here and wait until the molasses arrive,” she said.
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Ms Hawa Mutesi, a member of NAIRO local distillers, a group of 150 members, told Daily Monitor that molasses from Kenya are cheaper.
“In Kenya, a tonne of molasses goes for KShs6,000 (Shs187,532), while in Uganda (Kaliro), it goes for Shs350,000. The only challenge is that in Kaliro, one can buy as little as one or three tonnes, but in Kenya, we are required to buy between 20 and 30 tonnes,” she said.
Mr Jim Kabeho, the chairman of sugarcane manufacturers’ association, which includes Kakira Sugar Works Ltd, SCOUL and Kinyara Sugar Mills, attributed the shortage to the diversification of the sugar industry.
“Many companies have distillers, so they have diversified to making ethanol, which means all that was going to make local waragi is being diverted to make better products,” he said.
“For example Kakira Sugar Works has a very big distiller. It therefore wants to manufacture more whiskey and gins to fetch more export markets,” Mr Kabeho added.
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