By Burnett Munthali
The scarcity of sugar in the country is expected to ease following the opening of the sugar production season at Salima Sugar Company Limited on Tuesday with a full Malawian workforce.
2500 bales of sugar are expected to be produced per day and the production season runs up to November this year.
The opening comes at a time when the country has for some months experienced shortage of the commodity.
It also follows the termination of the Greenbelt Authority (GBA) shareholding deal with AUM Sugar and Allied Limited of India in Salima Sugar Company Limited because of a breach of contract in December last year.
Speaking when the company opened its first factory shop at Siyasiya in the district, Minister of Trade Sosten Gwengwe said Malawians were evaded in the previous deal and that moving forward people should expect the best from the company which is now being run without expatriates.
“Imagine that the government of Malawi was expected to have been having 88 per cent shares in the previous deal and we were only getting 40 percent,” lamented Gwengwe.
Salima Sugar Company Limited is a company which has its main business of producing and selling sugar.
It grows its own sugarcane as well as procures cane from small-scale sugar growers and uses it for producing sugar.
Salima Sugar Company Limited is a public limited company registered under Companies Act, Malawi.
60% of its shares are held by the promoters Aum Sugar Company Limited and 40% of its shares are held by Malawi Government.
