LDC sugar production set to expand considerably

According to press reports, the government of Mozambique ‘is planning to almost double its annual sugar production’. The plan is to increase production to 500,000 tonnes by 2012 from the current level of 300,000 tonnes. The general manager of Maragra sugar company, Michael Buchanan, says that Mozambican sugar production ‘is very much geared towards growth, largely because of the new preferential opportunity in the European market’. The European market access greatly reduces the risks associated with new investments, given the continuation of EU price guarantees until 1 October 2012.

Sudan, according to industry reports, is projecting a tripling of sugar production in the next three years, largely as a result of Egyptian investment in the sugar sector. Tanzania, meanwhile, is refurbishing its sugar factories with a 4% increase in production expected this season, according to the director-general of the Tanzania Sugar Board. However use of capacity, at 290,000 tonnes, remains below the nominally installed capacity of 400,000 tonnes in the four main sugar factories. Scope thus exists for a further 25% expansion of sugar production in Tanzania with minimal additional factory investment being required. Illegal imports of sugar, however, are seen as holding back further development of the sugar production in Tanzania.