ALGERIA – Madar Holding, an investment, industrial, and commercial group, has injected capital of 10 billion dinars (US$73.5 million) into its newly formed subsidiary specializing in sugar refining, production, and marketing.
Trading under the name Tafadis, the new company located in Larbaâtache (Wilaya de Boumerdes), is slated to enter production in the last quarter of 2023.
With a total cost estimated at more than 24 billion dinars ($176.5 million), this unit, which covers a 14-hectare site that can be extended in the future, has a projected production capacity of 2,000 tons of sugar a day.
The press release noted: “A member of the Madar group, the company Tafadis is therefore incorporated from March 12, 2023, and has as its object the refining, production, and marketing of sugar. Its head office is located in Larbâatache, in the wilaya of Boumerdes. Its starting capital was set at 10 billion dinars.”
“Tafadis, whose date of entry into production is set in the last quarter, per the schedule for setting up the production tool, will employ 1,200 employees when it is launched.”
Mr. Ahmed Drai has been appointed Managing Director of Tafadis and elected Chairman of the Board of Directors by its members.
In choosing the name of the new sugar arm, the CEO of Madar-Holding specified that Tafadis comes from the root “afdhess” which means, according to its various regional declensions, to break, to split, to break, to crush, to pulverize, to grind using a hammer.
Hammer is a symbolic cultural object of the sugar civilization in Algeria and its Sahelian extension, as explained in the communique, adding that it is, in a way, “the jewel of sugar,” according to the formula of Mr. Amara Charaf-Eddine.
In the 2020/21 season, Algeria emerged as the 5th largest sugar importing country in the world with a volume of 2.4 MMT during 2020-21, according to Statista. It is also the leading importer of sugar on the African continent.
In 2021, Prime Minister Ayman Benabderrahmane announced that the country would start to impose a 9 percent value-added tax on white and raw sugar in early 2022 to reduce imports and address health issues.
According to OEC, in 2020, Algeria imported US$670M in Raw Sugar, becoming the 6th largest importer of Raw Sugar in the world.
In the same year, Raw Sugar was the 5th most imported product in Algeria with Brazil being its biggest trader for the commodity (US$669M), followed by France (US$479k).
In the long term, Knowledge Sourcing Intelligence projects the Algeria sugar market valued at US$478.092 million in 2020, to grow at a CAGR of 4.50% over the forecast period to reach a total market size of US$650.785 million in 2027.
For all the latest food industry news from Africa and the World, subscribe to our NEWSLETTER, follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn, like us on Facebook and subscribe to our YouTube channel.
