Industria Açucareira em Moçambique: eficiência, produtividade e tecnologia

Abstract

I grew up next to Açucareira da Maragra and I remember that whenever I was a child, when I wanted to taste sugar, I went to the factory, there was never a shortage of sugar, whether for tea or for making traditional drinks, and at that time we never bought imported sugar. From the 1980s onwards, sugar production declined due to the almost non-existent rehabilitation of industrial and agricultural equipment; the lack of coordination between the agricultural and manufacturing parts; and the shutdown of some factories because of war and mismanagement. Taking these problems into account, the work analyzes (i) the technology used; (ii) the link between the agricultural and manufacturing parts; (iii) production costs; (iv) installed capacity; (v) and the domestic and international markets. Thus, it was concluded: - The national sugar companies have not made significant technological reforms since the country's independence. - Sugar factories have great difficulties in having the agricultural and manufacturing parts well coordinated, although there is an improvement with the acquisition or rental of new transport. - Sugar mills have high unit production costs due to low utilization of installed capacity and underutilized installed capacity due to the vicious cycle of low production, low income, high costs and negative profits. - Sugar mills must carry out a detailed economic feasibility study to verify the possibility of replacing tractors in animals when transporting sugarcane for distances up to 10 km from the factory. - Sugar plants are protected at a 10% rate under the 1996 tariff, but under the 1991 tariff they were penalized due to high rates of customs duties on imported inputs and low rates on sugar. The cost of domestic resources (DRC) shows that the Xinavane Sugar Estate is efficient only in the short run and the Mafambisse Sugar Estate is inefficient in terms of net gains in foreign currency in both the short and the long run. - National sugar companies should prioritize the domestic market and start carrying out feasibility studies for making molasses and sugar products — for example, alcohol, wounds, acids and fuel — so that the factories do not have idle capacity.