Mauritius to Reduce Sugar Plants to Four by 2015

Bloomberg-- Mauritius plans to cut the number of sugar production plants to 4 from 11 by 2015 to lower costs as the European Union reduces the subsidized prices it pays growers.

The remaining plants, producing 520,000 metric tons combined, will generate power from sugar-byproduct bagasse and ethanol from molasses or sugar cane juice, Kassiap Deepchand, technical adviser at the Mauritius Sugar Authority, said in a speech at the Co- Generation World Africa conference in Johannesburg today.

The Indian Ocean island is reorganizing its sugar industry as the EU cuts the price paid to developing countries for the sweetener. It is also diversifying the industry's revenue base by refining sugar locally, instead of exporting raw sugar, and by producing power and fuel.

Mauritius produces about 550,000 tons of sugar and 1.6 million tons of bagasse from between 5 million and 5.5 million tons of cane annually, Deepchand said.

Power generated from bagasse, a fibrous residue from sugar cane, should climb to 600 gigawatt hours by 2015 from 347 gigawatt hours last year, he said. Mauritius is boosting bagasse power projects to reduce its reliance on imported fuel oil, coal and gas.

Two of the four sugar factories that will remain have invested in ``modern co-generation units,'' Deepchand said.

The Economist Intelligence Unit this month estimated the island's economic growth at 5.8 percent this year and 6 percent next year. Mauritius, which is about the size of Rhode Island, is located about 500 miles (805 kilometers) off the east coast of Madagascar.