CAMEROON – Cameroonian brewing company, Société Anonyme des Brasseries du Cameroun (SABC), a subsidiary of the French company Castel, is set to launch the operations of Compagnie fermière du Cameroun (CFC), its subsidiary to specialize in grits production.
With CFC, SABC intends to produce 30,000 tons of corn grits yearly for beer production with some 60,000 tons of the raw material purchased from local farmers and 10,000 tons of grits sourced from Maïscam, an agro-industrial units in the northern part of Cameroon.
The raw materials will feed SABC’s newly built XAF18 billion (US$32 million) ultramodern processing plant in Mbankomo near Yaounde, SABC’s CEO Emmanuel de Tailly informed Business in Cameroon.
Also, CFC which is set to be inaugurated in August 2021, will contribute to the development of a corn value chain leading to increased revenues for farmers.
As per SABC’s projections, for the production of 30,000 tons of grits yearly, 30,000 to 40,000 farmers will need to develop 12,000 hectares of corn farms.
Goldstar Sugars Harare to supply sugar to The Coca Cola Company
These farmers will be grouped into cooperatives to facilitate support from the CFC, through the Agriculture Investment and Market Development project PIDMA, Emmanuel de Tailly stresses.
Meanwhile in Zimbabwe, sugar producer Goldstar Sugars Harare (GSSH), subsidiary of Starafrica corporation, has clinched a major deal of supplying sugar to The Coca Cola Company (TCCC) in the region and beyond, set to boost its operations.
The deal will enable the company that has been struggling to expunge heavy debts, launch an aggressive rebound in the market.
The transaction, announced by Starafrica Chairman Joe Mutizwa, gives the sugar producer impetus to execute a strategy to mount fresh forays into the African market, establish a broader footprint, grow its top line and build a bigger foreign-currency denominated war chest.
Announcing the Coca-Cola deal in a commentary to starafrica’s results for the year ended March 31, 2021, Mutizwa said the transaction will be at the heart of the firm’s 2022 growth strategy.
During the period under review, GSSH saw its output fall by 9% to 59, 571 tonnes after a three-week shutdown caused by the Covid-19 pandemic last year, which was followed by a fire incident, reports The Standard Zimbabwe.
The business unit sold 60, 386 tonnes against 63 993 tonnes sold last year.
The 5.6 percent drop in sales volumes is largely attributable to interruptions to production due to Covid-19 related factors and plant downtime.
A comprehensive capital investment strategy and equipment maintenance plan are now in place and will be implemented to accelerated pace of the company’s growth.
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