HARARE, June 26 (Xinhua) -- Zimbabwe's largest sugar producer Hippo Valley Estates Limited has welcomed the prevailing political dispensation in Zimbabwe saying that it has turned around the fortunes of some entities.
Presenting its audited results on Tuesday for the year ended March 31, 2018, the company said the outlook in the sugar industry also looked bright with the renewed expectation of an imminent turnaround in the economy.
Hippo Valley, which is the local unit of South African sugar producer Tongaat Hulett, realized a profit for the year of 11 million U.S. dollars, up from 7.7 million dollars the previous year.
"The challenging economic conditions which persisted during the period under review were counter-balanced by the transition in the leadership of the government towards the end of 2017 which created a more positive local and international sentiment towards the country," company secretary Bigboy Shava said.
He said the timely intervention by government to protect the sugar industry against competition from dumped world market imports continued to yield positive results in addition to providing job security.
Shava added that as the industry increased its sugar production, utilizing available total milling capacity of 640,000 tons per year, it would in the short to medium term be better positioned to benefit from opportunities arising from evolving access into regional deficit markets and growth in the local one.
"Given normal growing conditions and crop improvements underway, sugar production is projected to be between 433,000 tons and 483,000 tons in 2018/19, increasing to between 500,000 tons and 560,000 tons by 2019/29," he said.
