Mon, 12 Jun 2017 09:51:22 +0000
By BUUMBA CHIMBULU
THE unfavourable market conditions experienced in the European Union (EU) market has resulted in Zambia Sugar to reduce its exports by 74 percent in that region, company Managing Director, Rebecca Katowa has announced.
Ms. Katowa said EU prices were significantly weaker than the previous year resulting in the company reducing the bulk exports to the region while looking to regional markets for its products.
She explained that regional markets were valuable alternative to EU as prices were expected to remain above world levels despite increasing levels of completion amongst regional producers.
“In order to maximise revenues from reduced production, the export sales mix was adjusted favourably by reducing bulk EU exports by 74 per cent.
“Prices to the EU have collapsed to a level that is not cost reflective, so we are deliberately shifting volumes to the region; our strategy is to actually use every opportunity to put more volume into the region,” she said.
Ms Katowa said further progress in shifting export sales away from the EU to the region was expected going forward as realisations in these markets would continue to be influenced by exchange rate movements.
She said the company was focussing on exporting its products to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Kenya, Mozambique, Zimbabwe and the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) market.
Ms Katowa further said Zambia Sugar was committed to ensuring that it remained competitive in the market by making sure that it provided quality and affordable products to the consumers.
“We welcome competition to the country. We believe that if there is fair competition, it is a healthy thing to happen. We are committed to getting our position in the market and ensuring that we remain competitive.
“Also as economic fundamentals improve, we expect that our sales will improve because if we have more liquidity, we have less inflationary pressures on our consumers which will further impact on our sales volumes,” she added.
