EVARISTO CUMBANE, Maputo | Wednesday
SENA Sugar Estates — abandoned by its owners, bombed by rebels, and threatened by raging floodwaters — is about to complete its transformation from ruin to a potent symbol of Mozambique’s post-war recovery.
The sugar mill in the central town of Marromeu, flanked by the mighty Zambezi River and surrounded by cane fields, is due to begin grinding cane next week for the first time in 20 years.
With all but one of Mozambique’s six mills back in operation or under reconstruction, the re-opening of what was once the country’s largest sugar producer is a watershed in an industry that could help fuel the nation’s economic growth.
Before independence, Mozambique was the fourth-largest exporter of sugar in Africa.
But after winning independence from Portugal in 1975, 90% of the skilled workers who kept the mills running fled the country. Then came 16 years of brutal civil war, which decimated the once powerful industry. Now the sugar industry, like Mozambique’s economy in general, is being reborn.
In Sena’s case, its British owners abandoned the mill in Marromeu and another across the river in Luabo at independence. The mills managed to keep running for a few years, until Renamo rebels — now the nation’s main opposition party — blew them up 20 years ago.
Now in peacetime, with an elected government and an International Monetary Fund (IMF) restructuring plan, Mozambique has succeeded in attracting investors to revive its abandoned mills.
A Mauritian-led consortium, Sena Holdings, invested $120-million to rebuild the Marromeu factory. Its initial output this year is expected at 40 000 tonnes, with a total annual output of 100 000 tonnes from 2003, said factory manager Bernard Dutit.
Massive floods on the Zambezi in February and March threatened to wipe out the rebuilt mill and the surrounding cane fields, but the dyke held and the flood waters stayed out.
The tiny town of Marromeu is now a growth center in central Mozambique, as people arrive looking for work at the mill or to provide support services to new industry.
The nation’s second-largest sugar mill, Maragra in Maputo, also resumed production this year after catastrophic floods forced its closure in 2000.
The IMF has agreed to allow Mozambique to retain protective tariffs to keep its own sugar competitively priced, after investors threatened to withdraw their money if protection was removed.
Since the end of the civil war, Mozambique’s economy has consistently posted strong growth, making it a success story on a continent riddled with conflict.
In its latest Economic Memorandum on Mozambique last month, the World Bank said the economy had grown an average eight percent a year between 1994 and 1999, slipping to an average of 7,7% in the last three years due to natural disasters. – AFP