Sugar millers seek tough rules to end cane poaching

Sugar millers are proposing stricter rules in construction of weighbridges saying it will tame cane poaching, which is pushing them to the brink of collapse.

Weighbridges or farm gates and proliferation of middlemen have been identified as the biggest contributor to cane poaching.

Butali Sugar Mills has petitioned Parliament to enact regulations to restrict weighbridges to geographical locations within regions.

“A miller should not be allowed to construct weighbridges in another region but in its own and in any event within a sensible distance to its mill,” said Butali managing director Jayanti Patel.

Weighbridges constitute a serious enticement for cane farmers but lack of regulations on their construction has sled to abuse by some millers keen on frustrating their rivals. Abuse comes when private millers have set up weighbridges at the doorstep of public millers to divert farmers leading to cane shortage.

Cane poaching constitutes procurement of cane cultivated and developed for a sugar miller, by another miller who did not invest in its growing.

Aside from controls on cane poaching, he said the restrictions on sugar imports should be tightened in order to revamp the sugar sector.

He told MPs sugar imports should be limited to the annual deficit after optimal production by sugar mills is accounted for.