Project Kilimanjaro land clearing underway

Despite funding constraint holding back the implementation of the US$40 million Project Kilimanjaro, Hippo Valley Estates Limited says it has begun clearing vast tracts of land where extensive sugar cane crop will be planted.

The project is expected to develop virgin land into vast swathes of sugar cane plantations at Triangle and Hippo Valley estates in Chiredzi as part of the firm’s drive to increase aggregate sugar output while also empowering indigenous out-grower farmers. The farmers will be allocated plots on the nearly 3 300 hectares being developed on a cost recovery basis.

But in the interim, management said some maize and sorghum crop have been planted on some of the land, as “break crop”.

“Work on the 4 000 hectares cane development project (Project Kilimanjaro) being undertaken by the company in partnership with Triangle Limited, Government and local banks, has seen a total of 2 700 hectares of virgin land being bush cleared and ripped, and 562 hectares planted in the prior year.

“As previously reported, project works were slowed down on account of delays in obtaining the requisite funding from ­financial institutions, and lack of clarity on land tenure,” said Hippo Valley chairman Dan Marokane.

Hippo Valley Estates Limited is a subsidiary of South African-headquartered sugar miller Tongaat Hullets.

“Whilst new funding structures for completion of the project are being finalized, some 76 hectares and 700 hectares were put to maize and sorghum respectively, in partnership with Government, as part of efforts to improve food security in the country.

“An additional 902 hectares of maize was planted on company fallow cane land as a break crop, resulting in the double benefit of maximising land use, and further improving food security,” said Marokane.

With regards to Project Kilimanjaro, the chairman said Government has since assured the Hippo Valley that it would be granted security of tenure by way of a 99-Year Lease on Hippo Valley North (23 979 hectares) while maintaining freehold title on Hippo Valley South (16 433 hectares). Meanwhile, in its third quarter performance to December 31, 2020 Hippo Valley’s share of total industry sugar sales volume of 356 000 tonnes (from 333 000 tonnes in 2019) for the nine months period under review was 50 percent (2019: 48 percent). Total industry sugar sales into the domestic market for the nine months ended December 31, 2020 at 259 000 tons (compared to 266 000 tonnes in 2019), were 3 percent below prior year due to “deliberate measures taken by the industry during the first quarter of the financial year to minimise speculative trade and illegal exports to neighbouring countries on account of then existing currency and pricing distortions,” reported management. – ebusinessweekly.co.zw.