Date Of Article: 11/21/2002
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PCL in aquaculture project
By: Ephraim Munthali
Press Corporation Limited (PCL) has embarked on an aquaculture project that will intensify farming to increase fish output to 5,000 metric tonnes of chambo per year from the current 200 tonnes. PCL chief executive Matthews Chikaonda said in Blantyre on Wednesday the conglomerate has successfully completed the pilot and market taste phases on the project and will now be working on the feasibility phase. Chikaonda said the project, targeting the export market in the long term will in the first year of implementation produce 1000 metric tonnes of chambo. He said to facilitate the project, PCL has bought Nkholosa farm in Mangochi from Press Agriculture where the fish will be kept before distribution. According to Chikaonda, the project will be carried out either by expanding the operations of Maldeco or by establishing another subsidiary to manage the project. In another development, PCL has announced the establishment of Press Cane, a new subsidiary of the group that will be producing ethanol in Chikwawa to complement the Dwangwa plant. Chikaonda said like the Dwangwa plant, the new factory will also produce 60,000 litres of ethanol per day. He said the plant will help save foreign exchange since it will reduce ethanol importation. Ethanol is mixed with petroleum products. He said PCL will invest US$15 million with US$13.5 million already pumped into the project. Chikaonda, who described the project as almost 80 percent complete, said that out of the total investment, only US$4.2 million was borrowed from local banks while the rest has been sourced from within the group.
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