Maputo, Mozambique, 19 Nov – Companhia do Sena has re-launched its sugar cane planting in the fields managed by Companhia do Sena Sugar Estates in Zambezia province, after many years at a standstill due to the civil war in Mozambique, according to Mozambican daily newspaper, Notícias.

Companhia do Sena, the biggest sugar manufacturer in Mozambique, with headquarters in the town of Marromeu in Sofala province, has already started ploughing the land and prepared 600 of the 15,000 hectares expected to be used for the 2007/2008 season.

The newspaper cited a source from the local union commission as saying that they hoped reintroduction of sugar cane in Luabo, the area between the delta of the Zambezi and the Indian Ocean would take the area out of its current state of obscurity.

The Chinde district is vulnerable to flooding and cyclones and is completely cut off from land links to the rest of the world all year round.

In relation to the southern bank of the greater Zambeze, Companhia do Sena has an estimated area of 14,000 hectares in the Marromeu district.

The company expects to produce 71,000 tons of sugar this year, of which 30,300 will be white sugar and the remainder brown sugar. (macauhub)