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Not so sweet. That is the news from the sugar industry, the country’s third major foreign exchange earner whose production has dropped while its domestic sales went up.
This year’s sugar growing season between April and November ended with a cumulative total of about 250,000 metric tonnes, down from about 260,000 metric tonnes in 2003, according to Stanbic Bank (Malawi) economic report.
Illovo Sugar (Malawi) Limited had projected to produce 258,000 metric tonnes this year.
Illovo had said in its financial statements for the half-year ended September 30 this year that if achieved, the production would have been 8,000 metric tonnes higher than last year’s.
On the other hand, Stanbic reported that domestic sales for sugar between April and November stood at 88,791 metric tonnes representing an increase of 18.8 percent over the same period last year.
“In the first eleven months of 2004, domestic sales (at about 140,000 metric tonnes) were 17.4 percent higher than what was reported for a corresponding period in 2003,” reads the Stanbic report.
From its production, Illovo exported 46,825 metric tonnes to non-African markets with less than one percent in refined form while regional exports to Kenya, South Africa, Madagascar and Tanzania totalled 67,642 metric tonnes.
“Kenya led the pack with 34.8 percent of the total volume followed by Madagascar (25.9 percent), South Africa (14.5 percent) and Tanzania (12.4 percent),” said the report.
The remaining quantities were exported to the Democratic Republic of Congo, Zambia, Botswana, Comoros, Uganda and the new markets of Burundi and Rwanda.
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