Monday

USA Distillers challenges cassava farmers

USA Distillers has thrown a challenge to cassava farmers in the country to work hard as the company requires about 15 000 tonnes of cassava per month to produce alcohol.

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of USA Distillers, Joe Caldeira said the company demands a lot of cassava from the local market in order to produce alcohol fuel, commonly known as ethanol.

Presently, USA Distillers produces alcohol from molasses that is obtained from Mhlume Sugar Company and some is imported from Ovambo.

“The alcohol is not used as a beverage but as an additive to fuel. The alcohol is exported to the European Union (EU) and other overseas countries where it is used in their fuel,” he explained.

Demand

Caldeira stated that the great demand for this fuel in Europe and the market is limitless. Since the company can produce the fuel from cassava, there is a great demand for it and the company would like to expand its operations.

“I would like to encourage Swazi farmers to grow cassava because we are more than willing to buy it. At present, the company requires 10 000 to 15 000 tonnes of cassava per month. The price range we are looking at is between E180 and E200 per tonne,” Caldeira said.

He said the company is presently in negotiations with the Ministry of Agriculture and Co-operatives, in a bid to acquire some land so that they can also grow their own cassava. However, he did mention that it is in their company policy to engage individual local farmers who will also sell to them.

The company is presently operating at half its capacity and it is upgrading its systems to accommodate for the production of more alcohol from cassava.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Great company. Stimulating the Swazi economy in more ways than one.

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