Out of the total 10 factories Ethiopia planned to construct during the first phase of the Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP), seven of them were said to start production at the end of the coming year, Ethiopian Sugar Corporation announced.

The factories that are expected to be fully operational at the said time are Tendaho- 1 & 2, Omo-Kuraz-1, Kesem, two of the Tana Beles factories and Arjo- Dedesa.

When these factories start production they will push the nation’s per annum sugar production to 1.58 Million Tons, the Corporation’s Communication Director Zemedkun Zawde said.

The GTP plan stipulated by the end of the next fiscal year, Ethiopia will have 10 factories and a total annual production capacity of 2.25 Million Tons.

Nonetheless, it was only seven factories the nation was able to construct until now.

Different reasons are said to be attributable to the failure. Zemedkun states the main reasons for the nation not to achieve what it has set are financial constraints, lack of infrastructure and capacity of constructors.

In particular to Tendaho Sugar Factory, which was supposed to start production last December, it has not yet started production until now because of the contractor. Commenting on this Zemedkun said, the Indian company that is carrying out the construction has not delivered it in the time frame set.

Source: Ethiopian News Agency