Fortification of Vegetable oil and Sugar with Vitamin A in Uganda

Regarding whether or not the industry will fortify voluntarily, a broader perspective of the
relationship between the Government of Uganda and the sugar industry is needed. The Ministry
of Health’s view, alone, is not adequate. While fortification is a public health issue for the
MOH, it is more than that for the sugar industry. A more comprehensive Government of Uganda
perspective on the sugar industry is necessary and must consider:
• the industry’s largely Uganda-only market and its desire to be internationally
competitive,
• Maintaining protection and the characteristics of protection, together with UCSTA’s hope
for continued Government support for protecting the industry,
• the international price of oil and whether a molasses-based ethanol policy should be
developed,
• the regulatory system and the extent to which Government can mount a credible sugar
import control policy, and
• the cost to generate power and the price the sugar industry gets for selling excess
electricity.
The GOU should bring these points to the negotiating table when discussing fortification with
the sugar industry. Pulling together the diverse public sector agencies and actors may be
difficult, but is required to get sugar fortified in Uganda—particularly if the GOU continues to
insist on a voluntary policy.
F. The Costs of Fortifying Sugar
The estimates presented here are based on the following assumptions:
1. Fortifiable sugar is defined as nearly 200,000 ton/year (i.e. calculated as 85% of
domestic production: 232,108 x 0.85 = 197,292 tons of sugar as the UCSTA reported
was produced by mainly three of the Ugandan sugar companies).
2. Fortifiable sugar consumption is assumed to be the equivalent of the distribution of
UBOS HIES 2003 household sugar purchase data: nationally, 65 percent of all
households purchase sugar.
3. The average consumption of fortifiable sugar is estimated as: (total sugar output of sugar
for final consumption) divided by (the proportion of the national population purchasing
some sugar: 28.58 million x 0.65 = 18.58 million) = 232,108 MT/18.58 million = 12.5
kg/year ≈ 34 g/day per person.
4. The fortificant is a water-dispersible encapsulate of Retinol Palmitate 250,000 IU/g.
5. The cost of the fortificant is 79,920 UGX (US$48) per kg.
6. The cost of freight, clearance, NDA import license fee and the 2 percent NDA fee
together equal 5.43 percent of the fortificant cost (based on Ugandan oil industry data).
7. The retail price of sugar is 1,700 UGX (US$1.02) per kg.
8. The sugar company’s cost to add vitamin A to the sugar and provide quality assurance
(internal and samples referred to UIRI) are US$20,000/year per mill (similar to an oil
factory cost), i.e. U$60,000/year for the entire industry.
44