Ivorian Sifca to invest 56.5 mln euros to boost sugar

ABIDJAN - Ivory Coast agro-industry group Sifca will invest 56.5 million euros ($75.6 million) in sugar planting and plantations to boost production by nearly a third from 2014 in order to satisfy local demand, the company's chairman said on Wednesday.

The project is aimed at reaching a maximum annual sugar cane production capacity of about 1 million tonnes, producing 115,000 tonnes of sugar, Jean Louis Billon told a news conference in Abidjan. Current production is about 87,000 tonnes.

Billon said the firm will also rehabilitate and modernise two sugar processing plants, which suffered during the West African nation's near decade-long political crisis, which only ended after a violent four-month post-election stand-off.

"We are going to upgrade factories and plantations to enable Sucreivoire (Sifca's sugar subsidiary) to be more competitive," Billon said.

"It is a big sign of the restart of the sugar industry in Ivory Coast -- our target is to exceed 100,000 tonnes," he said.

Billon said the group had obtained 24.5 million euros from financial institutions, including 8 million euros from French government agency Proparco, while the rest of the money will come from the firm's own funds and from partners.

Sifca, one of Ivory Coast's biggest companies, which is part-owned by Singapore's Olam International and Wilmar International, posted a jump in net profits to 54.72 billion CFA francs ($114 million) in 2010, from 17.36 billion CFA in 2009.

The company produces palm oil, cotton seed oil, natural rubber, and sugar in Ivory Coast, Liberia, Nigeria and Ghana.

Ivory Coast's two sugar companies produced about 187,000 tonnes of sugar in 2010 for an internal demand estimated at about 200,000 tonnes per year.

source: reuters