Zimbabwe sugar output falls on low cane yields
Wed Jun 2, 2010 12:00pm GMT
* Sugar output down 13 pct from 298,000 T
* Expects sugar demand from EU, US to remain strong
* Industry recovering, targets 600,000 T in long-term
HARARE, June 2 (Reuters) – Zimbabwe’s sugar output fell 13 percent to 259,000 tonnes during the season ended March 2010 due to low cane yields, but production is seen rising, a unit of South Africa’s Tongaat-Hulett TNTJ.J said on Wednesday.
Hippo Valley Estates HIP.ZI, one of the country’s largest producers, said Zimbabwe’s sugar output for April 2009 to March 2010 had fallen from 298,000 tonnes the previous year.
“Cane yields for the period were adversely affected by the limited and delayed application of fertilisers and herbicides,” Hippo Valley said.
Hippo Valley said Zimbabwe had exported 146,000 tonnes of raw sugar to the European Union (EU) and the United States under preferential market access, which the country enjoys.
Zimbabwe’s sugar production has remained below 300,000 tonnes for the past decade, a situation blamed on the seizures by President Robert Mugabe’s government of white-owned farms, which disrupted commercial agriculture.
Mugabe has defended the seizures, which critics blame for worsening food shortages, as necessary to correct imbalances brought about by nearly a century of colonial rule, which gave white farmers about 70 percent of the country’s fertile land. Hippo Valley said, however, the sugar industry was recovering and production should eventually reach the country’s installed capacity of 600,000 tonnes.
“An industry-wide recovery programme is underway, focused on both the Hippo Valley and Triangle sugar mills, improving cane yields and the re-establishment of outgrower cane lands,” Hippo Valley said.
Hippo Valley and Triangle Limited, owned by Tongaat-Hulett, are the country’s major sugar producers.
The company said demand for Zimbabwe’s sugar in the EU and U.S. was expected to remain strong in 2011. while domestic demand would be firm despite competition from imported sugar.
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