Sugar plant engineers jet into Z'bar

BY MWINYI SADALLAH

1st September 2013

Sugar

Misra Costech Sugar Company of India has sent a contingent of 38 engineers to Zanzibar to rehabilitate a sugar plant located at Mahonda in Unguja North region.

The engineers jetted at the Abeid Aman Karume International Airport on Friday and were received by Zanzibar Sugar Factory Limited (ZSFL) manager Krishna Nayaranan.

Speaking to reporters Nayaranan said the engineers are set to complete the rehabilitation work by end of September after which sugar production would start.
He said a total of $ 15 million (Sh 24 billion) would be injected into the investment that is geared to do away with dependency on imported sugar for the consumption of Islanders.

“Zanzibar has for a long time been dependent on sugar imported from Pakistan and Taiwan. We hope that residents of Zanzibar will now consume sugar produced in their motherland,” Nayaranan said. 
The plant has the capacity to produce 40 tonnes of sugar a day but it was producing 15 tonnes a day before it broke down. He called upon sugarcane growers to increase the production of the crop as the market was reliable.

The refurbishing would create 200 direct employment opportunities and 400 others indirectly to sugarcane out growers. A total of 1,600 acres of sugar cane owned by the Zanzibar Sugar Factory Limited (ZSFL) have been earmarked for sugarcane farming.
“We intend to cultivate 3800 acres of sugarcane so that we can reach the maximum production capacity of 40 tonnes a day,” he said.

On his part, ZSFL consultant Dr Hamza Hussein said the revival of the plant would contribute to Zanzibar’s economic growth. The plants to be fixed are modern ones, and their parts are already in Zanzibar, he said.

Mahonda sugar plant was among the industries set up by the first Zanzibar president Abeid Amani Karume with Chinese support after the 1964 revolution.  

SOURCE: GUARDIAN ON SUNDAY