Successfully progressing our growth plans in Eswatini

From the 2025 Annual Report

Driving sustainable long-term growth in Africa is key to ABF Sugar’s strategy. As such, we are investing in our African markets to enhance our production capacity, operational effectiveness and agricultural practices.

A good example of this is our sugar and energy business in Eswatini, Ubombo Sugar, which has performed consistently well in recent years and is well-positioned for further growth over the next five years due to our exciting growth plans.

A two-phase factory debottlenecking programme is being invested in, with resulting operational efficiency improvements enabling 20% more cane to be processed and increasing total sugar production by 47,000 tonnes annually over the next five years. This follows the second phase of the government-funded LUSIP (Lower Usuthu Small-holder Irrigation Project) initiative which will see irrigation extended to a new 4,000 hectare small-scale grower development, benefiting local communities and significantly increasing available cane supply.

Resilience is also being built in Ubombo’s agricultural operations to help increase crop yields. Irrigation systems, pumps and pipelines have been upgraded, replacing older sprinkler and furrow systems with water-saving and more efficient irrigation systems. GPS-based precision farming has also been successfully introduced to improve harvesting and crop management, with drones used to assess fields, target specific cane areas for treatment, reduce pesticide use and guide agricultural activities more efficiently.

Mechanised green cane harvesting has been introduced over the past two years and this now covers 20% of the estate, improving soil health and boosting biomass for power generation. Other initiatives driving yield improvement include ongoing agricultural skills development and better use of estate planning and management technology.

These investments are already improving average cane yields which are expected to further increase from 95 to 108 tonnes per hectare over the next five years. The capital investment programme is enhancing reliability and efficiencies across both agricultural and factory operations and will underpin the long-term growth of our Eswatini business.