Sugar output at Uganda's top producers seen up 11 pct in 2015

KAMPALA (Reuters) - Uganda's three largest sugar refiners are expected to produce 11.5 percent more this year, helped by an expanded cane acreage, an industry official told Reuters on Wednesday. The east African country consumes about 350,000 tonnes of raw sugar a year and the government wants more investment to meet rising demand, which is forecast to double by 2030. Wilberforce Mubiru, secretariat manager at the Uganda Sugar Manufacturers Association (USMA), said it projects the country's three growers and processors will produce 416,000 tonnes of sugar in 2015, up from 373,000 tonnes last year. He said output at Kinyara Sugar Works and SCOUL, would "increase in 2015 because these still have land for sugarcane expansion and these factories have the capacity to still absorb the increased cane supply." Output at Kakira Sugar Works (KSW), the largest of the three, is set to remain stable at about 180,000 tonnes. Production of the sweetener last year was up 25.2 percent from 2013, boosted by increased processing capacity and higher cane supply from the three firms' plantations and independent farmers. This month, the Ugandan government signed a long delayed agreement with local owners of a large tract of land in northern Uganda where Madhvani Group, owners of KSW, intends to invest $100 million in a new cane plantation and processing plant. (Reporting by Elias Biryabarema, editing by David Evans)