Salima Sugar Company to enhance competition

Apollo International Limited, an Indian firm that is managing the Salima Sugar Company, has said the newly-established company will enhance competition on the market as well as increasing capacity of smallholder sugar producers.

The sugar company, constructed with a concessionary line of credit from the Government of India under the Indian Development and Economic Assistance Scheme (Ideas), is part of the Green Belt Initiative (GBI) in which the Indian firm has 60 percent stake with the remainder held by the Malawi government.

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Apollo country representative Hermant Kumar Gupta in an interview last week said for a long time, Malawi has had one sugar company, Illovo Sugar (Malawi) Limited that has monopolised the sugar market; hence, it was necessary to bring in another company and create competition.

He said: “Up until 2015, the Malawi sugar market was dominated by one sugar company, as it had near monopoly being the only manufacturer of sugar. This also meant that farmers had no option but to sell sugar cane to Illovo Sugar at the price determined by them.

“To help farmers and to have long-term effect on sugar prices in the market, it was felt necessary to bring competition to the market.”

The sugar firm, which has created about 300 jobs, set aside K1.5 billion which it used to buy sugarcane from farmers in Dwangwa, Nkhotakota. n