….. Members received highest share ever
BY BANELE MAGONGO
MBABANE – Eswatini Sugar Association (ESA) has recorded an impressive E7.4 billion revenue in one year.
The positivity in financials was revealed by ESA Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Banele Nyamane today (Tuesday, July 9, 2024) during a press conference.
Nyamane disclosed the impressive financials when highlighting how the company performed for the year 2023/2024, which ended on March 31, 2024.
He said the E7.4 billion was shared by various members of the association (ESA).
“From the E7.4 billion, we distributed E6.5 billion to members of the association and that is the highest they have ever got. From the E6.5 billion, an amount of E4.1 billion went to the Eswatini Cane Growers Association (ECGA),” Nyamane said.
The CEO stated that he was happy to know that the members of ESA were able to realise better revenue, despite a significant drop in volume. He said despite that, they were able to bring back USD 98 million (which is about E1 781 444 000) and also EUR 36 million (which is about E706 757 400). He said that pleased them because it enabled them to bring in more foreign currency into the country.
The CEO then stated how they worked during the 2023/2024 financial year. “In the year under review, we experienced second lowest production in terms in the past 10 years. The lowest was during the drought season in 2016/2017,” he said.
He stated that during the drought, the company produced 590 000 tons of sugar. The reason of the decline was the climatic changes that they were still trying to adapt to. According to Nyamane, the result of the decline in production made the local retailers to run out of sugar stock between March and April and he is hopeful that the company will make the situation better.
According to the CEO, the company was able to export the highest volume of about 26 000 tons of sugar to the United States of America (USA). He appreciated the USA Embassy in Eswatini for the support that they showed to the company in opening up the market. Nyamane stated that in the past, they have made a significance investment in infrastructure, intending to reduce the amount of raw sugar that they sold to the overseas market and the company had now started to reap the rewards for those investments, such that they were able to sell 55 000 tons of direct consumption sugar to the European Union (EU) which is one of the highest volumes, and he again praised the local EU commission for providing market for the company.
It stated that even though the volume significantly increased they received the highest revenue in the history of the sugar industry as they collected the returns E7.4 billion. The returns were distributed to the members of the association which included the growers of the sugar cane. He stated that they are grateful that their members got the highest returns despite the significance drop in volume.
