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Sugar Corporation of Malawi Limited (Sucoma), a member of the Illovo Sugar Group, said on Friday the international trade in sugar is a rough game because it is characterised by unfair competition.
Sucoma General Manager (Human Resources) Alan Fuggle, speaking on behalf of Managing Director Brett Stewardson during the Sucoma management trainees’ seminar in the commercial capital Blantyre on Friday, said virtually all sugar-producing countries in the world have protectionist policies aimed at protecting their domestic industries against foreign competition.
In this regard, Fuggle said Sucoma is strongly advising the Malawi Government to maintain the import licensing system.
“Other countries in the region protect themselves in this way. They do not accept every recommendation made to them by outside donor agencies who may not fully appreciate the situation on the ground, and the job losses and demise of the industry which this ill-advised action could precipitate,” he said.
Fuggle said international markets for Sucoma, which in recent years has been experiencing a steady drop in domestic sugar sales despite greatly improving sugar distribution networks in the country, are mostly to preferential markets including the European Union and United States of America.
“But import quotas and administrative barriers make it hard for us to export as much as we could export,” he said, while appreciating what government is doing in multilateral trade negotiations of the WTO and ACP/EU to safeguard the sugar industry.
And commenting on Illovo’s manager-in-training (MIT) programme, Fuggle said its major success indicators have been “the progressive decline of expatriates and the steady rise of Malawians” in the company’s senior management staff.
He said, for example, before Illovo took over Sucoma in 1997, expatriates constituted 49 percent of the entire management at Dwangwa and Nchalo estates while at the moment the expatriates constitute only 22 percent of the entire management.
Fuggle also said there were also 18 Malawians at middle management level in 1997 and now there are 45 while at senior management level the number of Malawians has risen from seven to 12.
Labour Commissioner Zebron Kambuto, who was guest of honour at the function, challenged the young managers undergoing training to desist from fraud, corruption, cheating and abuse of company property because such practices ruin the quality of resources in the country.
Kambuto also said Malawi seem to have more managers than leaders and entrepreneurs which, he said, is explained by the closing of most companies.
“The culture of managing enterprises need to change to ensure that innovative ideas from juniors, which are usually untapped, see the light of the day and improve efficiency,” he said and hailed Illovo for realising that people are its most important wealth.
During the function, the trainee managers made presentations of their research projects ranging from how to increase and maximise production to managing weeds and Daniel Moyo from Dwangwa Estate won K3,000 ($28) and a floating trophy for making the best presentation.
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