Chakwera engages Illovo Group on diversification

President Lazarus Chakwera has asked Illovo Sugar Africa (Pty) Limited to diversify their value chain in Malawi to other crops to benefit the company as well as the country’s economy.

The President said this when he met Illovo Sugar Africa (Pty) Limited group chief executive officer Gavin Dalgleish in Johannesburg, South Africa on the sidelines of the Brics Summit.

Speaking in an interview after the meeting, Dalgleish said he is looking forward to the completion of the Shire Valley Transformation Programme, which has multi-generational benefits and offers an opportunity to create more value chains for Malawi.

“We talked about growth prospects for Illovo Sugar (Malawi) plc in particular around the Shire Valley Transformation Programme and the potential it has to create more value chains for Malawi and the ongoing investment climate in Malawi,” he said.

Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs Sosten Gwengwe said Chakwera has been engaging the sugar manufacturer for the past three years to find ways of diversifying its value chains.

He said: “The main focus was on Illovo Sugar [Malawi] plc to diversify value chain to the sectors of our economy in addition to sugar. Illovo has really done only the sugar value chain addition and I think time is now ripe with the Shire Valley Transformation Programme which focuses on gravity-fed irrigation.

“Illovo can be the main off-taker of that water and develop a second value chain whether its cotton or legumes or whichever value chain that can be scaled to the size of sugar and I feel it is a win-win for Malawi and Illovo.”

Brics comprises of five emerging world economies, namely Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa and focuses on economic and political stability.

President of China XI Jinping has also backed expansion of the Brics, saying it would make global governance fairer.

Some African countries including Algeria and Egypt have expressed interest to join.

The Brics summit was held from Tuesday to yesterday.