Mozambique: Port of Maputo expands sugar terminal

Maputo, Mozambique, 3 June – The management company of the Port of Maputo has invested US$14 million in the expansion of the facility's sugar terminal with a view to increasing its capacity to 750,000 tonnes per year, said the chairman of Sociedade de Desenvolvimento do Porto de Maputo, the port’s management company.

According to Mozambican newspaper Notícias, Ronald Herman said that the investment carried out was part of a vast port development programme started in 2003, with estimated costs of US$273 million to ensure that the port can respond to the continual increase in storage and cargo processing requirements.

Producers from Mozambique, Swaziland, South Africa and Zimbabwe agreed to install a sugar terminal at the port of Mozambique, via which they have exported their production as part of the strategy adopted by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to increase the competitiveness of the sugar industry in the region and increase opportunities to access the market.

Herman said that the sugar terminal was currently the most requested unit at the port, mainly due to the good productive performance of the Mozambican sugar industry-

As na example, Herman said that in 2008 production at Mozambique’s four sugar factories (Maragra and Xinavane, in the southern region, and Marromeu and Mafambisse, in the centre of the country) totalled 250,000 tonnes, 120,000 of which were exported via the port of Maputo.

For this year, projections point to production of around 250,000 tonnes in the southern region alone, which has led to a forecast for increased demand for the services of the terminal set up at the port of Maputo.