The Sunday Mail
Livingstone Marufu
Overall, the company expects to cut back on losses during the current financial year.
LISTED sugar refinery starafrica Corporation forecasts that by September, it will be able to improve production capacity to 600 tonnes a day from the current 400 tonnes per day after the full integration of the new sugar refinery plant which had failed to integrate with an old section of the plant.
Engineers from South Africa, United Kingdom and India have been trying to correct the setback.
Sources at the company told The Sunday Mail Business that Government’s decision to remove sugar from the general import licence in November 2015 had helped lift performance.
Early this year, starafrica was forced to increase capacity from 300 tonnes to 400 tonnes as demand for the commodity from Delta Beverages and wholesalers spiked.
“The company is expected to increase its production capacity from the current capacity of 400 tonnes to 600 tonnes by September 2016.
“This is only anticipated when the full integration is done, probably from now until August as the commissioning of the plant is expected to take place in September.
“The plant equipment procured from India is expected to be shipped anytime from now as all payments have been made but we are not well aware of the total costs of the machinery,” said a source that is familiar to the goings on at the firm.
Local sugar producers used to be crowded out of the market by imports but Government’s intervention has provided relief.
It is believed that starafrica’s 2016 performance will largely depend on the plant upgrade that is slated for September and local demand.
However, starafrica could not respond to questions sent by The Sunday Mail Business last week as they are presently in a closed period.
Overall, the company expects to cut back on losses during the current financial year.
“We are confident that we can cut the loss deficit from US$5,3 million or even to record a profit only if sugar consumption continues to rise from all levels (bottlers and table consumers),” the company’s operations director Mr Mavellas Sibanda said last year.
National Social Security Authority, which holds a 26 percent shareholding in the sugar processor, invested $7 million in the plant’s upgrade.
The company has had to cull 100 workers due to technological developments that allows less workers to monitor the whole process through computers.
