Africa-Press – Uganda. Government, farmers, and millers have agreed on new rules to regulate sugarcane weighbridges, limiting them strictly to weighing functions and banning all trading activities, following concerns that the facilities were fueling cane theft.
The resolutions were reached during a stakeholders’ meeting held Tuesday at the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Cooperatives, chaired by the State Minister for Trade, General Wilson Mbadi.
The meeting brought together farmers, millers, security agencies, and local leaders to address growing complaints about theft and disputes in the sugarcane value chain.
Officials at the meeting acknowledged that sugarcane theft had been occurring and that some roadside weighbridges had contributed to the problem by providing markets for stolen cane.
Under the new arrangements, stakeholders agreed that weighbridges will operate strictly as weighing points, with no buying or selling of sugarcane allowed at the sites.
The facilities will also be relocated away from active cane trading zones to reduce opportunities for theft and illegal transactions.
New locations will be identified through a consultative process involving all stakeholders, led by Masindi Resident District Commissioner Darius Nandinda.
The meeting also agreed on a major shift in the cane supply system. Trucks will pick sugarcane directly from farmers’ fields and transport it straight to sugar factories, eliminating middlemen and roadside trading points.
Officials said the move is intended to close the loopholes that allowed stolen cane to enter the formal market.
Gen Mbadi said weighbridges must operate within the law and serve farmers’ interests.
“If operated well, weighbridges facilitate trade to enable a farmer know the weight before selling their products. How can weighbridges be best used as facilitators of trade, not facilitators of theft?” he said.
He added that disputes around theft and weighing could be resolved amicably.
“Complaints about sugarcane thefts and weighing is a small matter which stakeholders can resolve amicably. We need to co-exist with each other and operate fairly,” Mbadi said.
He emphasized the need for a clear tracing mechanism for all sugarcane being traded.
Masindi District chairperson Cosmas Byaruhanga, who is also a sugarcane farmer, told the meeting he had personally lost part of his harvest after delegating workers to deliver cane to a weighbridge.
He said part of the consignment was stolen, and attempts to verify the tonnage were unsuccessful because the weighbridge did not keep proper records of individual farmers.
Stakeholders also agreed to improve traceability across the value chain, including branding and identification of trucks transporting cane, to help track the origin of consignments and detect suspicious deliveries.
Kinyara Sugar Ltd welcomed the resolutions, saying they address long-standing complaints from farmers.
“We welcome the dialogue chaired by the trade minister to resolve the controversy of rampant sugarcane theft that has been fueled by weighbridges,” said company public relations officer Francis Mugerwa.
He said the decision to allow non-contracted farmers to sell to any miller, provided the cane is loaded directly from the garden and transported to the factory, would eliminate middlemen.
“We are grateful that the meeting resolved that non-contracted farmers can sell their sugarcane to a miller of their choice so long as the sugarcane is loaded inside the garden and directly transported to the miller, thus removing middlemen and brokers at roadside weighbridges,” he said.
The new measures follow recent government actions in Masindi, including the closure of roadside weighbridges after police investigations linked them to sugarcane theft.
Officials say the reforms are aimed at protecting farmers’ harvests, restoring confidence in the sugar supply chain, and ensuring that cane reaching factories can be traced back to legitimate sources.
