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ZAMBIA Sugar Company will in the next three years stop exporting sugar to the European Union (EU) market following the union’s sugar reforms that will be effective in 2017.
The EU is Zambia Sugar’s major market for sugar exports, but due to the bloc’s sugar reforms, and the impending end of sugar protocols, most African countries will stop exporting to the market.
Company board chairperson Fidelis Banda said the sugar reforms in the EU will negatively affect the company’s performance as the export market has contributed enormously to its expansion projects.
“The major challenge we are going to face in the next three to five years is the impact of the EU market sugar reforms, which will take effect in 2017.
“[With] the sugar reforms in the EU, and the coming to an end of sugar protocols, most African countries including Zambia will not be able to compete in that market due to the high cost of logistics into the market. The EU market was motivation for our expansion project leading to the increase of our production to 400,000 tonnes from 250,000 tonnes,” Mr Banda said.
He was speaking during the Customer Open Day in Mazabuka on Thursday. The theme of the day was ‘Establishing Sweet Partnerships’.
The open day was attended by100 customers of whom 47 were local, while 33 were from Kenya, Rwanda, Democratic Republic of Congo, Zimbabwe, Burundi, Namibia, South Africa and Botswana.
Mr Banda said Zambia Sugar will engage its customers from the region and within the country to sustain the current market share that will help increase sales for the company in prospective markets.
“We will continue to develop our products through the introduction of new supplies on the market,” he said.
Zambia Daily Mail
