Zambia is offering 100,000 hectares of land free of charge to foreign investors willing to put up almost $150 million to create a fourth large sugar firm in the southern African country, officials said on Friday.
Authorities have earmarked land for the project, called Luena, and begun searching for an investor, officials said.
"The Luena sugar project covers 100,000 hectares of arable land. The area has already been surveyed and marked and it is now ready for development," said Joel Ngo, a permanent secretary for the Luapula province in northern Zambia.
A senior ZCI official said the Luena Sugar plantation would be opened up to competitive bidding.
A study by the ZCI and the government estimated the operator would need to invest $148.7 million to develop the land, a processing factory in Kawambwa, 650 km north of Lusaka, and other infrastructure, the official said.
The government would provide another $29 million for infrastructure such as roads, schools and clinics in the area.
Zambia Sugar Plc in southern Zambia is the country's largest sugar producer, followed by Kalungwishi Sugar and Kafue Sugar.
"The Luena sugar project is estimated at 150,000 tonnes sugar production by 2010, about 230,000 tonnes by 2015 and production could peak at 285,000 tonnes by 2020," the official told Reuters. Initial estimates suggested Luena would employ 1,500 full-time workers and additional 2,500 seasonal employees.
The ZCI official said there was a growing market for sugar exports to the Democratic Republic of Congo and Angola, both of which are Zambia's neighbours and had recently opened up their markets after several years of internal conflict.
Zambia Sugar Plc will export 140,000 tonnes of sugar in 2004, about 20,000 tonnes of which has already been exported to Europe under a quota system and it is lobbying the European Union to increase the sugar export quota to 50,000 tonnes per year.
Zambia Sugar Plc total 2004 sugar output is estimated at 240,000 tonnes of which 100,000 tonnes is for local consumption.
Comments
Comments are closed.