Bernama | 29 May 2015

Kuwaiti group to invest in sugar cane plantation in southern Mozambique

MAPUTO -- Kuwait's Al-Badel International Development Company said it will launch a project to grow sugar cane in southern Mozambican province of Gaza within the next three months.

The project costs US$1.5 billion and the sugar cane in Massingir district is intended essentially for the production of bio-ethanol.

This pledge was given by Al-Badel chairman Ali Mahmoud at the end of a meeting here Tuesday with Mozambican Prime Minister Carlos Agostinho do Rosario.

During the meeting, they discussed opportunities for further development of projects in agriculture and industry.

It is not the first time that investors have planned to produce bio-ethanol in Massingir.

A contract was signed in 2007 with Procana -- whose major investor was London-based Central Mining and Exploration Company (CAMEC) -- to produce ethanol from a 30,000-hectare sugar plantation in Massingir.

Procana promised to invest US$510 million in Massingir but had only cleared 800 hectares of land two years after the contract was signed.

The government then cancelled the contract and began looking for other investors for Massingir.