THE Johannesburg Stock Exchange said on Monday foreigners were net buyers of nearly R1,2-billion rands’ worth of equities last week after buying only R86,7-million worth the previous week.
MAJOR MANGO PULPING
A MAJOR United Arab Emirates fruit processing company, Moh’d Al Oman, has begun construction a mango pulping plant in Mozambique’s central province of Sofala. The $4,5-million plant, which will be the largest of its kind in the province, is expected to create at least 100 permanent and 600 seasonal jobs in the country’s second port of Beira, mostly for women. It is also expected that mangoes will be purchased from about 2000 small-scale farmers. Moh’d Al Oman currently imports mango pulp to the United Arab Emirates from India and will export an estimated 3600 tons of pulp from its new Beira plant to Asia and Europe every month.
CARGILL IN COTE D’IVOIRE
UNITED STATES food giant Cargill laid the first stone for a cocoa processing plant on Monday in Cote d’Ivoire’s economic capital, Abidjan.The plant, located in the working-class district of Yopougon, will initially treat 65000 tons of cocoa annually, rising to 100000 tons in two years and producing “high value-added (products) such as deodorized cocoa butter and alkalized cocoa powder”. Cargill’s target is to process about 10% of Cote d’Ivoire’s cocoa production.