Environment

Illovo Sugar is the largest user of river and lake water within the group, predominantly for the irrigation of sugar cane crops. The operations in Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland and Zambia are fully irrigated and the estate in Tanzania is partly irrigated.

South African operations grow sugar cane under rain-fed conditions due to the favourable climate and the shortage of irrigation water resources. Generally, water has been in abundant supply from the rivers and lakes in the regions where Illovo operates in Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania and Zambia. In Swaziland the water available for irrigation exceeds demand for around nine months a year. For the remaining low river flow months, irrigation is supplemented by water that has been stored in company dams during periods of low irrigation demand.

The Illovo Sugar irrigated agricultural operations have licences from the relevant national water authorities for water abstraction points. These agricultural operations strive to be responsible water users and continuously improve practices according to guidelines set out by the South African Sugarcane Research Institute and other local authorities.

Illovo Sugar agricultural operations focus on improving the standard of water use efficiency at both an operational level and when irrigation systems are renewed. Irrigation systems are designed to be compatible with the climate, the shape of the property, its topography and the soil type. Illovo Sugar has been successful in installing efficient pivot-type irrigation in a large proportion of the recently installed irrigation systems in Malawi, Zambia and Swaziland. More of the high-efficiency pivot-type irrigation systems are planned for the future in Swaziland and Malawi, depending on economic feasibility.

As part of our commitment to responsible water use we invested over £2m in 2011 to improve environmental management, with a focus on water and effluent.