EU hands over R180m to upgrade Swazi roads

MBABANE – The European Union is giving Swaziland a R180m grant to upgrade the road system used for sugar transport. Dirt and gravel will be replaced with bitumenpaved roads as part of R1.2 bn in financial support the EU has given to Swaziland to assist the country’s key sugar industry. “The project will reduce transport costs of sugar cane from the farms to the mills. Soon dust, gravel and high transport costs will be a thing of the past,” said Hans Duynhouwer, head of the EU delegation in Swaziland at the project launch in eastern Swaziland’s sugar belt last week. Swaziland sugar has long received preferential access to the EU market as part of a plan to boost developing nations’ economies. However, the scheme ends next year at the conclusion of the current Economic Partnership Agreement between SADC and the EU. The EU financial assistance to Swaziland’s sugar industry is aimed at modernising and making more competitive local operations so they can better compete on their own without future EU subsidies via preferential market access. “Swaziland is Africa’s second major exporter of sugar to the EU,” noted Duynhouwer. Sugar is Swaziland’s main agricultural export and accounts for 18% of the country’s GDP. 60% of agricultural output is now sugar, which has replaced pineapple and other crops in recent years throughout the country, thanks mostly to the EU trade deal. Tarring of sugar belt roads is one way to make the industry more profitable, Duynhouwer said.