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| Business |
| ISO hails Malawi sugar |
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by
Ephraim Munthali, 09 March 2003
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The International Standardisation Organisation (ISO) has awarded Dwangwa Sugar Corporation (Dwasco), a subsidiary of the Illovo Sugar Group, with the world class ISO 9001:2000 certificate.
The certification means that Malawi sugar has been crowned as one of the best in the world.
Illovo managing director (Malawi) Brett Stewardson disclosed in an interview at the Dwangwa factories in Nkhotakota on Friday that Malawi is the first country in the Illovo group outside South Africa that has attained this status.
Other countries in the five member state group are Mozambique, Zambia and Tanzania.
Stewardson said the certification will be good for his company because it will bring consistence in the quality of sugar being produced, a development he said is good for the sugar firm as it will help it increase its market into Europe at equal footing with other world class producers.
“We simply picked the best practice which was to achieve the ISO 9001:2000 target and picked the best way of achieving it and let everybody follow it. It was team work that did it,” said Stewardson.
Over 13,000 people are employed at the Dwangwa and Nchalo Estates with an estimated further 2,000 employed in directly supporting industries such as independent cane cutters, hauliers and service suppliers.
Sugar in Malawi represents a key core sub-sector of the economy with a record output of 260,440 tonnes of raw and processed sugar in 2002 from 2.1 million tonnes of estate and small holder grown sugar cane.
This, according to Sucoma official figures, represents an approximate value of K6.8 billion in annual sales.
Half of the total sales is exported under special or preferential trading agreements and through competing in regional markets at world market prices.
During the presentation ceremony at Dwangwa, 18 employees were also awarded with “Internal Quality Auditing” Certificates which, according to company officials, are in line with ISO standards.
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