abwe’s sugar cane output is projected to drop by three per cent to 3.8 million metric tons (MMT), due to a 12 per cent drop in area harvested.The drop in area harvested is mainly due to the fact that the sugar mills will not be receiving any cane for producing sugar from the Green Fuel ethanol project.
Cane yield per hectare, however, is expected to increase as good summer rains from December 2013 to March 2014, improved the availability of irrigation water in supply dams.
In the 2013/14 MY, Zimbabwe harvested 3.9 MMT of sugar cane on 46,605 hectares, marginally less than the 4.0 MMT on 53,486 hectares.
Sugar output in the 2014/15MY is forecast to decrease marginally to 480,000 MT, due to a decline in sugar cane area harvested, after 488,000 MT of sugar was produced in 2013/14 MY.
In the 2012/13 MY, Zimbabwe produced 475,000 MT of sugar.
A total of 200,000 MT raw sugar was exported to the European Union (EU) in the 2013/14 MY, under the preferential market arrangements.
Duty free and quota free exports to the EU are forecasted to remain at around 200,000 MT in 2014/15 MY.
A total of 124,639 MT sugar was imported by Zimbabwe in the 2013/14 MY.
Post expects sugar import will decrease drastically in the 2014/15 MY, after the Zimbabwean government introduced restrictions on sugar imports.
