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A. LE FLOCH
PGBI Engineering and Constructors, to conduct a study on how to expand its capacity of processing sugarcanes. The factory signed a 7.4 million Br contract with the company two weeks ago; the job has already begun, company officials disclosed.
Located 193Km east of the capital, Metehara processes 50,000kg of sugarcane a day: it wants to increase this capacity to 150,000Kg. The management issued a public tender two months ago to select a consultancy company that would help it achieve its goal. Five international companies responded to the offer, including SOFRECO, BOSCH and China Light Industries Corporation.
Upgrading the capacity of Metehara is part of the grand vision of the government to develop the sugar industry as a whole. Confronted with an increasing gap between demand (currently three million quintals a year) and supply limited at 2.8 million quintals, federal authorities are exploring various projects that will cost the government a total of 17 billion Br.
Green projects such as in Tendaho and Kessem Bulhamo, both in Afar Regional State, were in the process of development, until the Prime Minister's Office suspended the latter eight months ago. Constructions of dams and canals at an estimated cost of 1.6 billion Br are still in progress, however, with the hope that it will help to develop 10,000ht of the 30,000ht given to Metehara.
A study on how to use this plot has been completed by Water Works Construction and Design Enterprise, officials of Meterhara disclosed. According to these officials, the factory has started breeding selected seeds on a 30ht plot, hoping that this will be expanded to 200ht in eight months.
Metehara has also be given a 10,000hct plot in Fentale Wereda, Oromia Regional State, where it area farmers organized under cooperatives, will be allowed to plant sugarcanes to sell back to the factory. The management of the factory expects to sign a memorandum of understanding with the region's Irrigation Development Authority.
When the sugar sector development is completed in 2008, authorities hope that the country will have increased its existing sugar production capacity three fold. The Ethiopian Sugar Industries Support Center, responsible to oversee the realization of the dream, was legislated by Parliament in May 2006 to become a federal agency.