By Delisa Thwala
Exports and imports through the Port of Maputo and a border post with Eswatini have been disrupted amid post-election unrest in Mozambique.
Violence broke out last month after Daniel Chapo, candidate of the ruling Frelimo party, which has held power ever since independence in 1975, was declared the winner of presidential elections with 71% of the vote.
Opposition groups allege that the polls were marred by widespread fraud.
The Podemos party claims its candidate, Venâncio Mondlane, actually won 53%, while the EU observation mission said it had concerns regarding the transparency of the counting and tabulation process.
This tension has caused a delay and set back for Eswatini in transporting sugar across the border, when revealing this information, This was stated by Eswatini Sugar Association Financial Director Andreas Mendes.
She highlighted challenges faced by the Agriculture sector, stating that they had witnessed a rise in input cost.
She added that there had also been a disruption in the supply value chain, which was caused by the emerging geo-political wars.
“An example is what has been happening in Mozambique, and it has impacted the sugar sector as we it had to find alternatives of transporting sugar to markets,” she said.
When speaking further she said yields have declined by 21 tons of cane per hector
In the past five years, the sugar producing industry yields declined by 21 tons of cane per hector.
She said however they believed that the cornerstone of the challenges stem from climate change.
She added that they had also witnessed the emergence of pest and diseases which were unknown.
“Just last year we saw the emergence of the green leaf popper and farmers had to deal with it,” she said.
She mentioned that there was also an issue with business sustainability, as customers were now very cautions on what they consume and wanted to understand how the activities in the field impacted the environment and their consumption.
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Mendes noted that there were various means that the sector was doing to try deal with the challenges.
“This includes crop insurance, which insurance companies say it has increased since the climate change crisis,” she said.
She said another solution was investing in technology so save water as it was slowly becoming scares.
“We are also trying to move to other alternatives of energy as both water and energy are key resources in the agriculture sector which comes with high investment cost,” she said.
She noted that the private sector could assist with access to funding, as it is the main problem.
“Bankers can come up with solutions that are tailor made to assist those businesses” she said.
In addition, she, she said climate change has also caused disruptions in the distribution of rainfall, leading to a drop in the availability of water.
She said when it is expected to rain, there is no rain but extreme heat and storms here and there. She said storms cause so much havoc, as they destroy crops.
Mendes added that another challenge faced by farmers is adherence to sustainable standards, as consumers are now on high alert for what they consume.
She added that another big issue faced by farmers is funding.
Worth mentioning is that, about 26 535 tonnes of sugar is shipped yearly to the Unites States of America through the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA).
In 2023 Eswatini Sugar Association (ESA) Logistics Manager, Sibusiso Hlandze said the local sugar was exported to a terminal in Maputo, Mozambique.
He said the terminal, called the Terminal De Acucar De Maputo (STAM), (STAM), played a significant role in the country’s sugar industry.
It is owned by four sugar companies in four countries namely Eswatini, South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique.
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According to Hlandze, STAM was responsible for the handling, storage and distribution of sugar produced in the four countries.
Each of these countries own a share of 25 per cent of this terminal. The terminal is only for raw sugar, which is unprocessed, mainly we sell that sugar to the European Union (EU) where they reprocess it to refined sugar.
“The sugar here cannot be consumed as it is raw. The sugar is ferried from Eswatini and delivered here where we put it in the vessel, then we take it to our external markets, mainly the EU,’’ he said.
In addition, he further said, there is only one cargo that goes to the US every year, they have a quota.
The highest volumes are necessitated by an increase in demand in US for the longest time.
Meanwhile Hlandze said Eswatini Sugar Association invested in the sugar terminal in Maputo for almost 30 years now.
Worth noting is that the country’s exports to the United States (US) in 2023 was over E1.4 billion, while in 2021 it was E669 164 496 and E387 702 611.40 in 2021.
The US was a big market worth taking advantage of. Eswatini is the United States’ 163rd largest supplier of goods imports in 2019.
US goods imports from Eswatini totalled US$16 million in 2019, up 19.1 per cent (US$3 million) from 2018, but down 85.5 per cent from 2009.
US goods trade surplus with Eswatini was US$4 million in 2019, an 81.1 per cent decrease (US$16 million) over 2018.
