Sugar production increases

Swaziland expects to produce 529,000 mt of sugar compared to last season's 475,000 mt on the back of good rains and an increased production area, media reports quoted the head of Swaziland's Sugar Association as saying. "The low world sugar price is not a serious problem for Swaziland at the moment because our earnings are not too diluted by the relatively small amount we sell into the world market," said Mike Matsebula. He added that Swaziland would sell 190,000 mt into preferential markets and 260,000 mt into the five-nation Southern African Customs Union (SACU) comprising Swaziland, Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and South Africa. The remaining 79,000 mt would be sold on the world market, Matsebula said. Swaziland's sugar industry provides one in five jobs in the kingdom of one million people and generates about 20 percent of the country's foreign exchange earnings.