Ramp up production, sugarcane growers told

The Zimbabwe Sugar Association Experiment Station has challenged indigenous commercial sugarcane farmers to ramp up production and help Zimbabwe’s aggregate sugar output to hit the 600 000 tonnes of raw sugar annually.

Zimbabwe’s two cane mills at Hippo Valley and Triangle estates have a combined installed milling capacity of 600 000 tonnes of raw sugar, but the mills are operating below capacity.

The station believes indigenous cane farmers resettled under the land reform programme were the answer to increasing production.

Addressing farmers during the Zimbabwe Sugar Industry Seminar held at Triangle Country Club last week, the station’s director Dr Muntubani Nzima said the new farmers should adjust to meet commercial farming requirements.

He observed that some of the farmers were selling inputs on the parallel market.

Dr Nzima quashed a proposal by farmers who wanted Government to extend farming inputs to them under the Command Agriculture, saying the farmers should first show seriousness with their business.

“I heard some of you talking about Command Sugarcane,” he said. “You are asking Dr Nzima and the rest of Zimbabweans to fund your commercial production, which is continuously declining.”

Dr Nzima said a lot of foreign currency was wasted by Tongaat Hulett Zimbabwe acquiring inputs which were being sold by farmers on the black market.

“When I talk about this, it’s because we have the ability to turn the situation around,” he said.

“Tongaat spends a fortune every year on fertilisers and herbicides and we cannot continue putting billions of dollars in an industry where farmers have an appetite for selling inputs.”