Mozambique should seek to increase domestic sugar consumption

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Mozambique should seek to increase domestic sugar consumption

5:01 CAT | 15 Sep 2017

Mozambique needs to increase per capita domestic consumption of sugar and at the same time identify alternative markets to the European Union, particularly the United Kingdom, the Mozambican Sugar Producers Association (Apamo) president said in Maputo.

RosárioCumbe was speaking at a conference organised by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Sugar Producers Association, intended to analyse the implications of the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union on the SADC countries’ sugar sector.

The European Union is, according to data presented at the meeting, the third largest producer and the second largest consumer of sugar in the world, with the United Kingdom absorbing more than half of the production of SADC countries within the EU.

Cumbe also said that sugar producers in SADC member countries should look at their own regional markets.

Cumbe, who is also the chief executive of TongaatHulett, which manages the Xinavane sugar mill in Maputo province, pointed out that the SADC market has a sugar deficit of around 2 million tonnes, thus providing a huge number of consumers in countries such as Angola, Tanzania and DR Congo.

Mozambique, with an installed capacity to produce 550,000 tonens of sugar, produces 460,000 tonnes, with consumption of around 220,000 tonnes. Consumption increasing to 15 kilogrammes per person would be enough to absorb total annual production.

Source: Macauhub