Malawi’s Limphasa Sugar Corporation plans to invest $40-million to kick-start sugar cane production in the northern lakeshore district of Nkhata Bay in 2013.

The company, which has a 600 ha plant-ation at the site, is set to become Malawi’s second-biggest sugar producer after South Africa’s Illovo Sugar group, which owns the Nchalo and Dwangwa sugar cane plantations and sugar factories in the country. “Limphasa expects to use the financial resources to expand its sugar cane plantations to 1 500 ha. We plan to cover about 5 000 ha in 2013, when we will start production at our newly established factory,” says the company’s spokesperson, Kirit Thakrar. “