MBABANE – The location of a major Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) factory in Eswatini represents the first significant foreign direct investment in years in a country besieged by an under-performing economy and high unemployment. Kellogg Tolaram Eswatini, a wholly owned subsidiary of a 2015 joint venture between cereal maker Kellogg Company USA (familiarly doing business as Kellogg’s) and the food manufacturing conglomerate Tolaram Group of Singapore, is investing R200 million in Eswatini. About 1000 jobs will be created, including workers employed by ancillary local firms servicing the Kellogg Tolaram factory. The immediate shipping strategy is to transport all product by road to South Africa.
“KTEPL (Kellogg Tolaram Eswatini (Pty) Ltd) was incorporated last year, in July 2019, to develop the cereal and snack business in Eswatini. But we are looking at both the local and export markets. Our first two production lines when they are up and running will be devoted to instant noodles,” Paras Gupta, chief financial officer for KTEPL, told Freight News.
Noodles proved a popular product produced by Tolaram Nigeria, and production is being duplicated in Eswatini. At a tour of the factory site outside Manzini last week with Eswatini Prime Minister Ambose Dalmini, company officials said additional production lines would be added when the company expanded, and these would be devoted to the line of Kellogg’s cereals. Maize for current production is being sourced from Piet Retief.
“Right now all our production will be shipped to Johannesburg. This will be as road freight,” said Gupta.
The Eswatini government’s Eswatini Investment Promotional Authority (EIPA) is building the factory for the operations in Matsapha, the country’s primary industrial site located 17km west of Manzini. Kellogg Tolarium has agreed to purchase the property by 2023. Production is scheduled to be up and running by the end of 2021.
“The integrated supply chain of the project will benefit various participants of the supply chain, including transport and logistics, but also when it comes to the provision of raw materials, various supplies and professional services,” said Gupta.
