Maputo — There is enough sugar in Mozambique to supply domestic requirements despite the flooding last month which affected thousands of hectares of sugar cane in Maputo province.

Agriculture Minister Celso Correia on Monday overflew the devastated sugar fields of Maragra, in Manhica, where 51 per cent of the total area was lost due to the floods.

But even with this scale of destruction, according to a report in Tuesday's issue of the Maputo daily "Noticias', sugar producers are guaranteeing that there will be no impact on the domestic market, in terms of the availability of sugar.

"We are comforted to learn from private business that there will be no shortage of sugar in the country, and there is no forecast of any price increase, at least not for now', said Correia.

He was speaking in the flood-stricken town of Boane, where he delivered production inputs to around 12,000 producers affected by the February floods

However, the government recognizes that the situation will prejudice the longer term prospects for national sugar cane production, and calls into doubt the target for 315,000 tonnes of sugar in the present agricultural campaign.

Preliminary data indicate that about a billion meticais (16 million dollars at the current exchange rate) will be needed to recover the lost area - 10.2 million dollars to replant sugar cane, and 5.8 million to restore the transport infrastructure, the drainage system and the dikes.

The government is promising to work with the sugar industry to draw up a reconstruction and modernisation plan, and how to finance it, in order to increase the production areas.

Celso Correia said this collective work will make it possible to reach the installed capacity, and to assist the small scale cane producers, who are crucial if the sector is to continue supplying the national market, and producing a surplus for export.