Long, tortuous journey of crafting laws to bring order in sugar sub-sector continues

In the period, AFA records show a low of 191,251 hectares under sugarcane which produced 5,125,821 tonnes of cane in 2017, to the all-time high of 223,006 hectares producing 7,659,120 tonnes of cane in 2021, and down to a four-month closure of factories for lack of cane to crush in 2023.

However the confusion that has led to the historic lack of sugarcane can be traced to the 11th Parliament that scrapped the Sugar Development Levy (SDL) in 2016, a tax imposed on millers to go towards cane development.