NEW SUGAR MILL FOR ZAMBEZIA

Studies are under way for a new sugar plantation and mill in Mopeia district, in the central Mozambican province of Zambezia, reports Tuesday’s edition of the Maputo daily “Noticias”.According to Mopeia district administrator, Joao Zamissa, who was briefing a government brigade led by the Minister of Planning and Development, Aiuba Cuereneia, at an extraordinary meeting of the Mopeia district government, the project is financed by South African investors, and the plantation will eventually cover 30,000 hectares. Planting cane on the first 10,000 hectares could take place in the second half of this year,Zamissa said abut 3,000 direct and indirect jobs will be created. Most of the direct jobs will be in the plantation. The sugar mill will employ about 400 people. “Everything indicates that work will begin in the second half of this year, with the preparation of the first fields for production”, he added. “Installing the factory should take place in the middle of next year”.Zamissa said that, in the first phase of the project, its backers are promising to invest about a million US dollars. He claimed that, within the first five years, the factory will be selling 400,000 US dollars worth of sugar on the domestic and export markets. Cuereneia urged the Mopeia district government to ensure that small scale producers could be involved in the project. “I would like a detailed report on how the population can sell cane to the sugar factory”, he said. There is already one sugar mill in Zambezia, at Luabo, in Chinde district – but it lies in ruins. The Luabo mill was once part of the Sena Sugar Estates, but it was destroyed by the apartheid-backed Renamo rebels in 1986, and has never been rebuilt.If the Mopeia project comes to fruition, it will be the fifth functioning sugar mill in Mozambique. The other four are at Maragra and Xinavane in Maputo province, and at Mafambisse and Marromeu in Sofala.