AFRICA'S NO.1 FOOD, BEVERAGE & MILLING INDUSTRY MAGAZINE

Dangote, BUA, FMN prioritized sugar importers in Nigeria following massive investments in industry

Jul 17, 2021Jul 17, 2021 Editor

NIGERIA – The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has restricted importation of sugar into the country to be only undertaken by the three major industry players i.e., Dangote Sugar Refinery Plc, Golden Sugar Company owned by Flour Mills of Nigeria Plc, and BUA Sugar Refinery Limited. The Apex bank in a circular titled: “Sugar Importation in Nigeria,” signed by the Director, Trade and Exchange Department, CBN, Dr. Ozoemena Nnaji, hinged its reason for selecting the aforementioned sugar manufacturers on the fact that they had made reasonable progress in achieving backward…

South Africa faces negative economic impact as unrest rock country

Jul 15, 2021Jul 15, 2021 Editor

SOUTH AFRICA – South African retailers have been left counting losses after sporadic incidents of protests in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng, have resulted in widespread looting and disrupted the supply chain, raising concerns of a potential shortage of basic consumer goods in SA. The loss to retailers, including the cost of damage to property and delivery vehicles, runs into millions of rand, the Consumer Goods Council of SA (CGCSA) has indicated. The CGCSA has condemned the unfortunate incidents of unrest saying such acts of wanton criminality have no place in democratic…

Cargill invests US$45m into production of soluble fibres to meet Europe’s demand for low-calorie products

Jul 14, 2021Jul 15, 2021 Editor

EUROPE – American multinational food corporation Cargill is investing US$45 million into production of soluble fibers in an effort to meet demand for low calories products in Europe. According to a statement from the company, the investment will be pumped into Cargill’s existing facility in Wroclaw, Poland where construction of a soluble fiber products line is already underway. The company is expecting its initial offerings to be fully commercialized in the second half of 2022. The move marks the company’s first entry into the European soluble fibre market and comes amid a growing demand for reduced-sugar products. Demand for low-sugar products grows…

South African sugar manufacturing giants RCL Foods, Tongaat Hulett expect rise in full year earnings

Jul 3, 2021Jul 3, 2021 Editor

SOUTH AFRICA – RCL Foods, South African consumer goods and milling company expects its profit for the year ended June 2021, to exponentially rise by as much as 592%, boosted in part by strong recovery in sugar and baking segment. The owner of Selati sugar, Ouma rusks and Rainbow Chickens brands, indicated in a trading update that it expects its headline earnings per share to be at least 90 cents compared to 13 cents a year ago on a recovery in sugar and baking. Meanwhile, its earnings per share would…

South Africa scratches its head to find balance between health, economic impact of sugar tax

Jun 30, 2021Jun 30, 2021 Editor

SOUTH AFRICA – The South African sugar industry has always publicly lamented the negative impact of the Health Promotion Levy (HPL) that was introduced in 2018 to the already distressed sector. The HPL on sugar-sweetened beverages, popularly known as “the sugar tax”, was implemented in April 2018, as one of the measures by the Department of Health to address obesity and non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in South Africa. Initially the HPL was set at 2.1 cents (US$0.0015) per gram of sugar content that exceeds 4 grams per 100ml, which means that…

Bakhresa Group nears completion of first phase of US$300m Bagamoyo Sugar Limited in Tanzania

Jun 10, 2021Jun 10, 2021 Editor

TANZANIA – Said Salim Bakhresa Ltd, the flag-ship company of the Bakhresa Group, has announced that the first phase of the US$300 million Bagamoyo Sugar Limited is nearing completion and will officially start production by June 2022. According to the group’s Corporate Affairs Director Hussein Sufian, the company has pumped in about US$100 million in constructing the first phase of the project. The project, which has three phases, is expected to commence with an installed processing capacity of between 30,000 tonnes and 35,000 tonnes. For the three phases, the annual…

Ethiopia launches US$231m sugar factory, appoints Ernst & Young to oversee privatization of state-owned sugar plants

Jun 9, 2021Jun 9, 2021 Editor

ETHIOPIA – The Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Abiy Ahmed has inaugurated the long-waited Tana Beles Sugar Factory one, constructed in the Amhara regional state. Delayed for over 8 years, the sugar factor project commenced in 2012 with a planned completion date of around 18 months. However, by end of 2017 only about 60 percent of the project was completed forcing the government to cancel the business agreement with the original contractor, Metal Engineering Corporation (MeTeC). CAMCE, a corporation which belongs to China National Machinery Industry Corporation (SINOMACH), took over the…

Kenyan industrial conglomerate Devki Group drops out of Mumias Sugar leasing plan, dampening miller’s revival plan

Jun 5, 2021Jun 5, 2021 Editor

KENYA – Devki Group of Companies, industrial manufacturing giant in Kenya, has withdrawn its bid to lease the troubled Mumias Sugar Company. The Founder and CEO of the Group, Dr Narendra Raval, had recently revealed that he was seeking to pump in Ksh5 billion (US$46m) in modernising the state-owned sugar company’s ageing plant and develop cane, in the latest bid to revive the once top miller that stopped production nearly three years ago. However, the steel tycoon cited the ongoing public interest, where by stakeholders raised accountability questions over the…

Kenya’s manufacturing giant Devki Group invests US$16m in new fertilizer plant, seeks to pump in US$46m to revive Mumias Sugar

Jun 3, 2021Jun 3, 2021 Editor

KENYA – Devki Group of Companies, industrial manufacturing giant in Kenya, has pumped Ksh 1.8 billion (US$16m) in the establishment of a new fertilizer plant. The new investment has come less than two years after Devki Group’s subsidiary, National Cement Company, acquired ARM assets in Kenya, which included its industrial minerals business, fertilizer unit, silicates business and mining operations for US$50m. The former ARM fertilizer arm and producer of leading brands such as Mavuno Planting, Mavuno vegetables and Mavuno top dressing, has been since renamed to Maisha Mineral Fertiliser. The…

Flour Mills of Nigeria expands investment in Nigeria’s sugar industry as Shell Nigeria ventures into cassava processing

May 31, 2021May 31, 2021 Editor

NIGERIA – Flour Mills of Nigeria Plc (FMN), has announced the acquisition of 20,450 hectares of land in Nasarawa State, to boost the backward integration strategy (BIP) of the National Sugar Master Plan, as leading energy company, Shell Nigeria, inaugurates a multi-billion-naira cassava processing facility in Rivers State. The move by the integrated food business and agro-allied company, FMN, is part of its commitment to the overall growth strategy of the sugar industry in the country. This follows the company’s recent acquisition of an additional 5,200 hectares of land in…