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Mozambique: Sugar Industry Missing Targets
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Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique (Maputo)
6 December 2007
Posted to the web 6 December 2007
Maputo
Sugar production in Mozambique this year will not meet the planned targets, the government's Agricultural Promotion Centre (CEPAGRI) has warned in its latest report.
According to CEPAGRI, by the end of the third quarter the progress of the sugar campaign gave no sign that it would be possible to meet the targets set in the government's 2007 Economic and Social Plan, despite favourable climatic conditions.
The four Mozambican sugar companies had expected to mill 2.18 million tonnes of cane by the end of the year, which would allow them to produce 265,000 tonnes of sugar and over 80,000 tonnes of molasses.
But by the end of September, the companies (at Marromeu and Mafambisse in Sofala, and at Maragra and Xinavane in Maputo province) had only managed to mill slightly more than 1.6 million tonnes of cane, to produce 190,000 tonnes of sugar and about 54,000 tonnes of molasses.
The late start to the 2007 campaign was the main factor that had led to a fall in cane production of 11 per cent when compared to the same period in 2006. The fall in the production of sugar and molasses in the first nine months of the year was nine per cent.
CEPAGRI believed that Marromeu and Maragra would find it very difficult to recover from the delay - but Xinavane and Mafambisse were working at a pace that would allow them to make up for lost time.
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Sales of Mozambican sugar, however, are booming. In the third quarter of 2007, the demand for Mozambican sugar exceeded expectations, leading to a significant expansion in sales.
According to the CEPAGRI report, the four companies sold 43,487 tonnes of sugar on the domestic market between July and September - an average of 14,495 tonnes a month, rather than the 12,000 tonnes forecast. This was a 15 per cent increase on the domestic sales for the same period in 2006.
Exports of brown sugar over the quarter amounted to 40,000 tonnes.
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| Copyright © 2007 Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections -- or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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