Photo by: Bloomberg
Sugar producer Illovo Sugar will not open its Umzimkulu mill in the 2015 sugar-milling season to “affect optimum asset utilisation”.
“The significantly below-average rainfall experienced in KwaZulu-Natal during the 2014 sugar-milling season, together with severe frost in the Midlands region during the past winter, damaging parts of our cane supply area, have severely affected expected cane supplies for the forthcoming season,” Illovo Sugar South Africa MD David Howells explained in a statement.
Generally, the sugar milling season started at the end of March and ran for about nine months.
All Umzimkulu cane deliveries would be diverted for processing over 55 km to the producer’s Sezela mill, which Illovo said had the capacity to crush cane supplied from its agricultural operation, outgrowers and that diverted from Umzimkulu. The additional transport cost would be borne by Illovo.
Excluding employees needed to perform critical functions, where possible, at Umzimkulu, the balance of the mill's workforce would be transferred to other Illovo operations after the appropriate consultation had taken place.