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Ethiopian Sugar Industry Group Works to Eliminate Sugar Imports within Five Years

Ethiopian Sugar Industry Group Logo 22

The Ethiopian Sugar Industry Group announced its commitment to completely replacing the country's sugar demand with domestic production within the next five years by scaling up sugar production from the current 3.6 million quintals to 13 million.

The country has implemented a five-year strategic plan to tackle challenges in the sugar industry and increase productivity. Eliminating sugar imports starting by implementing this plan is one of the Group’s objectives. Accordingly, there are efforts to expand irrigation infrastructure for recently built sugar factories to meet domestic demand fully and replace imported sugar in 2025.

According to Reta Demeke, Public Relations and Participation Head at the Ethiopian Sugar Industry Group, the demand for sugar has been outpacing domestic supply for some time. In response, the group was re-established in March 2022 with the goal of achieving self-sufficiency in sugar production. The Public Relations Head reported a strong focus on identifying and resolving the bottlenecks affecting sugarcane production and increased production costs since the Group's re-establishment. Additionally, there is a focus on expanding irrigation development infrastructure to increase coverage and yield.

Ethiopia produces 3 to 4 million quintals of sugar annually while the annual sugar consumption is between 5 and 6 million quintals.

Source: Ethiopian News Agency

Additional source: 2Merkato Archives