Sugar Cane: Its evolution and multifunctional role
In the course of the long history of the sugar industry in Mauritius, sugar producers have never failed to support the development of the sector through the substantial investments they have supplied in its modernization. This has been instrumental in Mauritius honoring its sugar export commitments and in enabling the sector to fulfil its socio-economic and multifunctional role on the local front.
Fueled by its preferential market access to the EU, the growth of the sector and its ability to meet its market commitments have been possible thanks to the development of a range of supporting services and capacity building initiatives in several strategic areas, namely research and development, tertiary education, vocational training, engineering, mechanization and extension services to name but a few.
The high versatility of the crop has enabled the diversification of its main product, sugar, into a wide variety of high value-added special sugars, as well as the production of valuable co-products, such as electricity from bagasse or rum and ethanol from molasses. With all such products, co-products and services, the sugar sector has thus evolved into a vast sugar cane cluster with a very high multiplier effect at the macro-economic level.
In 2001, in view of the threats and challenges, namely the real risk of Mauritius sugar exports losing their competitive edge in a liberalized environment, Government launched the five-year Sugar Sector Strategic Plan (SSSP), aiming at providing the industry with the appropriate framework to improve its competitiveness and to ensure its very survival.
With the launching of the SSSP, the Mauritian sugar sector had embarked in major reforms at all levels which implied more centralization, cost reduction, enhanced productivity, manpower rightsizing, the optimal use of cane sugar resources, well-planned diversification activities and the creation of new opportunities.
In 2005, against a backdrop of decreasing revenue resulting from the drastic cut of 36% in the EU price of sugar, Government launched the Roadmap for the Sugarcane Industry for the 21st century and subsequently in 2006, the Multi-Annual Adaptation Strategy Action Plan 2006-2015.
The Action Plan contained bold and deep measures to transform the sugar sector, facing the unprecedented challenges brought about by the reform of the EU sugar regime and the reduction of sugar prices. It aimed at ensuring the long-term viability and sustainability of the industry and enabling it to continue fulfilling its multifunctional role in the country, namely in attaining national economic, environmental and social goals.
Core objectives of the plan were to (i) further modernizing and diversifying the sector with a view to transforming it into a more cost-efficient and competitive sugar cane cluster, geared towards the production of raw, white, industrial and special sugars, electricity from bagasse/coal and ethanol from molasses, (ii) continuing to fulfil the sugar trade commitments of the country and (iii) helping to reduce the country’s dependency on imported fossil fuels and on oil in particular.
The total cost of the projects contained in the Action Plan was estimated at Rs 25 billion (€675 million). Most projects, involving 87 per cent of the total cost (€585 million), if fully implemented during the targeted period 2005-2010 would have allowed the industry to be prepared well in advance to face the challenges arising from the 36% drastic price cut in the wake of the reform of the EU Sugar Regime and the abolition of the Sugar Protocol in 2009.
In view of the importance of the sugarcane sector in the national economy, the EU Commission decided to provide a financial grant to the tune of €250 million to the Mauritian Government as support in the implementation of the necessary reforms.
The objectives of this reform were to (i) rationalize and modernize sugar activities (ii) bring down labour costs with the introduction of the second Voluntary Retirement Scheme (iii) improve field operations with the introduction of derocking, irrigation and regrouping of small planters’ operations and (iv) improve factory operations and management.
To date, four Independent Power Producers (IPPs) supply around 350GWh of electricity from bagasse only to the national grid. Further to the centralization of milling activities, 4 factories are in operation in the four enlarged factory areas of Altéo, Médine, Terra and Omnicane. Introduction of flexi factories have allowed the optimum mix of sugar and co-products and the production of refined and special sugars.
However, in the wake of a further drastic drop of sugar prices in the EU further to the abolition of beet sugar production quota in the EU, the local sugar cane industry is yet again faced with a major challenge to prove its resilience.
Mauritius has a restricted domestic market representing only 10% of its production while the remaining 90% is exported to the regional markets as well as to the European and the United States markets. The situation on those overseas markets is closely followed by the Mauritius Sugar Syndicate which is the commercial arm of the sugar sector.
The sugar industry is not just about growing sugarcane and producing sugar. The by-products of the industry include bagasse which is used in the production of electricity by four power plants and molasses which is used in the production of alcohol, vinegar and ethanol.
Long discussed, the Biomass Framework came into existence in 2024. The by-products of sugar, mainly bagasse, it highly used as fuel in the process of energy generation by Independent Power Producers (IPPs).
The IPPs are comprised mainly of sugar producers who included power generation as part of their diversification program.
The seasonality of bagasse generation made its use intermittent, thus limited to a period parallel to sugar production. Hence there was a need to introduce other biomass sources to compensate for the seasonal drop in bagasse use that forces the IPPs to shift to fossil fuel.
Thus, in line with the government’s objectives that is the inclusion of 60% of renewable sources in the energy mix, the IPPs are working towards the used of different sources of biomass. Eucalyptus the best candidate to date to complement that use of bagasse.
Revisiting the non-Sugar Agriculture sector
Since the mid-seventies, various policies have been implemented in Mauritius with a view to promoting the development of the non-sugar agricultural and agro-industrial sectors. The objectives were to achieve self-sufficiency, increase food self-reliance and reduce dependency on imports, and to encourage the export of high value crops and the development of the agro-processing sector.
However, despite various incentive measures (subsidies, storage facilities, guaranteed price and outlets for some products), the overall results have been well below expectation, except for a few success stories such as the production of fresh vegetables, of poultry meat and eggs. As concerns agricultural exports, they are limited to anthurium flowers and to small volumes of tropical fruits, e.g. pineapples and litchis.
This situation is mainly due to the fact that Mauritius suffers from a number of inherent constraints, which have considerably hampered the development of the agribusiness sector. Many if not all of these constraints stem from the characteristics shared by practically all small-island states. They include, inter alia, a narrow domestic market, the remoteness from lucrative export markets, pressure on land and on other natural resources, generally unfavorable agronomic and climatic conditions (droughts, cyclones), and the limited range of crops which can be grown on a sufficiently large scale to be economically viable.
This is why sugar cane, with its inherent natural traits, is ideally suited to local conditions and has remained to this day the only crop in Mauritius to be cultivated on a truly industrial scale for export markets.
Against all these odds, Mauritius, which is a net food importing country, has been able to attain self-sufficiency in some sectors such as the production of fresh vegetables, poultry meat and eggs.
Moreover, several agro-processing industries have succeeded in establishing themselves by transforming imported raw material (edible oil refining, animal feed compounding and wheat flour milling) into finished products. Their primary objective is to supply the local market though some of them have been exporting their products to neighboring countries with some success.
Taking into consideration all these factors and with a view to revisiting the conventional approach to “agricultural diversification”, i.e. setting production targets to attain self-sufficiency, the Chamber of Agriculture had issued in 2001 a report outlining a New Strategic Orientation for the Agribusiness sector. Adding value to primary products, reviewing in a more realistic way the production targets of a number of local products, and regional co-operation lie at the very heart of the proposed strategy. These proposals were submitted to Government in the context of the elaboration of the Non-sugar Sector Strategic Plan (NSSSP) 2003-2007 and the same integrated approach proposed subsequently for each strategy.
In 2007, the Ministry of Agro Industry and Fisheries launched a comprehensive program for the development of the non-sugar agricultural sector entitled Strategic Options for Crop Diversification and Livestock 2007-2015. The definition of such a strategy had indeed become essential in view of the many changes brought about by the restructuring of the sugar sector, but also the need to review the NSSSP 2003-2007 and our food policy given namely our increasing reliance on imports and projected tourist arrival in the coming years.
Consequently, the Strategic Plan 2016-2020 for the Food Crop, Livestock and Forestry Sectors has defined the national objectives to significantly increase food and agricultural production in a competitive and sustainable manner through innovative production methods and novel products development while opening access to new markets. Opportunities, land suitability, production targets, implementation plan, capital requirement, and accompanying measures have been identified for a number of key commodities, but also for those crops having a promising potential.
Furthermore, broader areas of interventions have been identified as key factors to reach the targets proposed such as, amongst others, (i) enhancing food and nutrition security (ii) improve competitiveness (iii) promote food safety and efficient and sustainable production practices (iv) promote strong value chains (v) develop resilience to Climate Change. However, no significant increase in local production has been noted and the country remains a net food importer.
A collaborative approach between producers and a review of the agribusiness model is on its way to foster development in a fragilized sector having poor interest from the young generation, lack of labour force but a high potential of development regarding the demand of consumers for healthy and sustainable products and the introduction of certification programs to reassure the markets.
Projects
The Mauritius Chamber of Agriculture also acts as an intermediary with whom potential investors and farmers can interact. Potential investors can send their expression of interest to the Chamber of Agriculture who will direct them towards farmers looking either for investors on a specific project or towards the sale or lease of land portions. The same is also applicable for farmers who have plots of land to sell or to lease. They can inform the Mauritius Chamber of Agriculture of the specifications of the land and the Chamber will act as facilitator by linking the farmer to potential investors.
The Smart Agriculture project aims at accompanying the Mauritian agro-ecological transition. The main goal is to promote a well-reasoned mode of production which will allow the general agriculture in Mauritius, to move towards more sustainable and resilient systems in the face of climate change. In that regard, the management of inputs (pesticides, fertiliser, water…) is optimised and alternative techniques (traps, biodiversity, rotation) are implemented by adjusting them to the proper context and situations present at field level. These production systems, with the necessary traceability, will allow for the reduction of residues of plant-health products all the while taking into consideration the expectations of healthier products of the consumers as well as the need to respect the environment. The project also aims at maintaining or enhancing the economic results for the farmers while ensuring their productivity.
Following the on-site visit of a delegation of some members at Mpumalanga - the biggest producing region in South Africa - and thorough discussions with members of the South African macadamia industry, the corporate sector decided to get into macadamia production. For the 1st year, some 50 hectares will be put under cultivation. The nut is a non-perishable commodity, which can be, exported worldwide.
Founded in 1853, Mauritius Chamber of Agriculture, a non-profit private association, is the oldest institution of the private sector and regroups agricultural farmers as well as other stakeholders of the sugar sector, other agricultural cultivations and other general agricultural related activities.
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