Rail helps Swazi sugar exporters cut costs

MBABANE – Swaziland’s fourth sugar mill announced last week will significantly lower transport costs for local growers while expanding the country’s overall sugar exports. To be located in the eastern lowveld “sugar belt” near the three existing mills and sugar plantations, the Nsoko Msele Integrated Sugar Milling Project will be constructed at a cost of R2. 8 billion on a 120-hectare site adjacent to the Nsoko rail line operated by Swaziland Railways. The new mill’s shareholders – NEWCO Sugar Milling Company, which is owned by the regional government and commercial farmers and Nsoko Msele, which is wholly owned by commercial farmers – expect growers’ transport costs to be cut by 75% when they begin utilising the Nsoko facility. Savings will come from shorter transport times to the new mill in their vicinity but primarily due to the rail line. Growers were previously wholly dependent on more costly road transport to move their bulk sugar cane to existing mills. Swaziland’s sugar exports account for nearly 20% of Swaziland’s annual GDP. The European Union is the principal purchaser, acquiring about half of yearly production that averages about 630 000 metric tonnes. Swazi sugar is transported by road and rail to the port of Durban for export to the EU.