By Delisa Thwala
Sugarcane farmers in Eswatini produce a turnover of E200 million yearly.
This information was revealed by EWADE CEO Dr Samson Sithole during Prime Minister Russell Dlamini’s official visit to the Siphofaneni Service Centre last week.
Sithole further revealed that 28 sugarcane farmers had taken loans and 15 of them had paid back their loans.
Sugarcane production in Eswatini started in Big Bend in 1956 and has been based on sugarcane estates owned by the millers.
To date, the Eswatini Sugar Association (ESA) and the Government have established smallholder sugarcane production farms on Swazi Nation Land as a means of alleviating poverty in Vuvulane, Komati Downstream.
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Development Project (KDDP) and Lower Usuthu Smallholder Irrigation Project (LUSIP) areas with assistance from the three sugar mills existing in the country, which are Mhlume, Simunye, and Big bend mills.
According to Agricultural reports in 2014/15, the sugar industry accounted for 74% of total agricultural output and had contributed 16% of the total export earnings, 17% and 10% of the private and national wage employment per annum, respectively, 25% to the total manufacturing output and 13% to Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Meanwhile, the European Union’s (EU) support for Eswatini’s agricultural sector continues to be visible thanks to the EU’s continued support to smallholder sugarcane farmers in the Lubombo region, east of Eswatini.
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In October 2018, then EU Ambassador to Eswatini, Esmeralda Hernandez Aragones, attended the Smallholder Sugarcane Growers competition held at Siphofaneni where she was the guest speaker.
Ambassador Hernandez Aragones said the EU’s support to the sugar sector in Eswatini over the years has seen over 7 500 hectors being developed for smallholder sugarcane farmers, benefitting more than 3,000 households,
with even more people enjoying the services of improved infrastructure made possible by the EU support to the sugar belt.
