Zimbabwe has enough sugar to meet the needs of the local market and even has a surplus for export despite a current shortage of the commodity in the country, a sugar industry expert said on Thursday.
In an interview, Dr. Washington Mutatu, Senior Agricultural and Industrial Research Chemist at the Zimbabwe Sugar Association Experiment Station, appealed to the public not to panic over the unavailability of sugar in the country, saying there is enough sugarcane in the country.
“I believe we currently produce enough sugarcane to produce sugar that should be able to supply our domestic and export markets. So consumers should not be concerned about the availability of sugar, it is already available.”
He said that exporting this commodity is not competitive due to the country’s high production costs, which are mainly electricity, water, fertilizers and labor.
“Our production cost is very high, so we as scientists have to look for ways and methods to reduce the production cost,” Dr. Motato said.
He appealed to sugar producers to diversify into manufacturing more by-products of the commodity to improve their revenue sources.
Some of the byproducts of sugar are ethanol, fuel, and molasses.
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