• Requires 235 million Birr to recultivate lost sugarcane
ADDIS ABABA-Tana Beles Sugar Factory I is expected to go fully operational in the coming December and commence trial production soon, said Sugar Corporation.
Anteneh Asege, Project Manager told The Ethiopian Herald that international and local suppliers have imported some factory equipment which were not previously purchased by MetEC, the contractor that was in charge of the construction of sugar factories.
The construction of the project has now reached 70 percent, Anteneh said adding that 17 containers full of factory equipment have now arrived.
“As per the schedule, the Tana Beles I project will likely go fully operationalin December. The contractors are finalizing some of the plants and are set to conduct a boiler test soon,” he added.
Indicating that the project has two contract phases, he said efforts have been exerted to see completion of the second phase project to enable the factory to operate at half-capacity.
The project will commence trial production in May. But, the occurrence of desert locust makes things uncertain, he said.
Recalling that 13,000 hectares of sugarcane had been planted, he said, only 2,000 hectares of sugarcane production is ready for crashing. “As 16 months have passed since the planting of the sugarcane, most of the produce could no longer be used for the production of sugar,” he said.
While 1500 hectares of land have been recultivated, the project manager said, additional 235 million Birr is needed to recultivate additional 6,000 hectares and meet the input demand.
“This remains to be a challenge for the factory to go operational in December as banks are not willing to provide loan for the recultivation.”
Sugar Corporation CEO Weyo Roba said the factory is part of the Corporation’s plan to construct three factories with the capacity of crushing 12,000 tons of sugarcane per day using sugarcane planted on 75,000 hectares of land. Later, the government abandoned the third factory due to shortage of finance, according to latest information from the Corporation.
Due to the delay in the construction and completion of the factories, the Corporation had terminated construction agreement with METEC in 2018 and made a new agreement with China’s CAMC Engineering Co., Ltd. to complete the remaining works of Tana Beles Sugar Factory I.
When the factory reaches its optimum capacity as per its design, it is planned to produce refined sugar, high amount of molasses and ethanol as well as generate 45 megawatts electricity.
Even though sugarcane is planted on 13,147 hectares of land since the inception of Tana Beles Sugar Development Project in 2010, the sugarcane died out due to the delay in the construction of the factories.
The Ethiopian Herald February 20/2020
GIRMACHEW GASHAW
