“Sudan has an important role to play, with the potentials we have in land, water, climate, to come in and fill in the world gap in sugar production” - Mohamed El Mardi, Managing Director, Kenana Sugar Co. (September 2009)
Raw-sugar prices in New York rose 98 percent this year while refined sugar advanced 77 percent in London.
Source: Bloomberg report by Maram Mazen and Alaa Shahine, Sept. 11 2009:
Sudan Plans to More Than Triple Sugar Production, Kenana Says
Sudan plans to more than triple sugar output within three years after prices for the sweetener rose to a record, according to Kenana Sugar Co., the country’s biggest producer.
Plants under construction will take output to more than 3 million metric tons from 900,000 tons now, Managing Director Mohamed El Mardi said in an interview in Khartoum on Sept. 8. Kenana will lift its refined supply by about 40 percent to more than 600,000 tons in the crop year ending April 2010, he said.
Prices have gained on speculation that India, the biggest consumer, will boost imports and as rains delay the harvest in Brazil, the biggest grower. Demand will outpace supply for a second consecutive year in 2009-10, with a likely shortfall of 9 million tons, London-based Czarnikow Group Ltd. said this month.
“Sudan has an important role to play, with the potentials we have in land, water, climate, to come in and fill in the world gap in sugar production,” El Mardi said.
Raw-sugar prices in New York rose 98 percent this year while refined sugar advanced 77 percent in London.
Kenana, established in 1982, is based about 150 miles south of Khartoum on the eastern bank of the White Nile. It is 34 percent-owned by the Sudanese government, with the Kuwait Investment Authority holding 30 percent and the Saudi Arabian government 12 percent, according to El Mardi.
Kenana and Beltone Private Equity of Egypt in August agreed to start an agricultural company investing as much as $1 billion in the Middle East and North Africa.
The new company will seek investors from next month and “we expect to start the first project in six months,” El Mardi said.
To contact the reporter on this story: Maram Mazen in Khartoum via Cairo newsroom mmazen@bloomberg.net. Alaa Shahine in Cairo atasalha@bloomberg.net
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