Ethiopian Sugar Corporation: Aliko Dangote Interested in Investing on Ethiopia's Sugar

Ethiopian Sugar Corporation’s newly constructed sugar refineries Omo Kuraz I and II and Beles I are scheduled to begin production this month.

By Dana Sanchez (AFK Insider) |

Aliko Dangote, CEO of Nigeria’s massive Dangote Group, said he wants to diversify his investments in Ethiopia, and he’s looking at sugar production.

Ethiopia produces enough of its own sugar to stop importing it this year and start exporting it — a turnaround that the government describes as revolutionary.

Ethiopian Sugar Corporation’s newly constructed sugar refineries Omo Kuraz I and II and Beles I are scheduled to begin production this month. Construction is also planned for 10 new sugar factories, according to Girma Amente, Minister for Public Enterprise, Fana Broadcasting Corp reported.

The country is expected to have 13 large sugar factories by 2020, according to Ethiopian Sugar Corporation.

Ethiopian sugar production is meeting local demand with some surplus production expected this year, Ethiopian Herald reported.

Until recently, the country imported some 200,000 metric tonnes of sugar a year for local consumption.

“Our production capacity had not been over 400,000 metric tonnes before. But now due to expansion … and the new factories that will get fully operational this year, the nation will have a capacity to produce 700,000 metric tonnes of sugar this year,” said Gashaw Aychlum, spokesman for the Ethiopian Sugar Corporation.

With this capacity the country no longer needs to import sugar, Gashaw Aychlum said. “We could say the nation is in a state of ‘sugar development revolution.’”