Algerian sugar refiner to raise output

Algeria's leading private agro-business group Cevital, which runs North Africa's largest sugar refinery, will raise annual output to 800,000 tonnes in January 2008 from 600,000 tonnes now, its CEO said on Monday. "The additional 200,000 tonnes will be sugar liquid," Issad Rebrab told Reuters in an interview.
Rebrab added that in June 2008 the complex in the port town of Bejaia east of Algiers would start up a second unit with a capacity of one million tonnes per year aimed at the export market. He said Cevital planned to start the unit at 70 percent capacity and reach full capacity after two or three months. "We will export most of the output (of the second unit) to eastern Europe, Tunisia, Libya and Sahel countries," Rebrab said.
Most of Cevital's output currently goes to the domestic market. Algeria's annual needs in white sugar are estimated at 1 million tonnes. "We imported 800,000 tonnes of raw sugar in 2007 from Brazil," Rebrab said.