daniel chigunwe
Senior Business Reporter
HIPPO Valley Estates Limited anticipates a four percent increase in cane yield to 739 329 tonnes from private farmers in the 2024/25 season buoyed by the company’s strategic focus to improve yields.
In a statement accompanying financial results for the year ended March 31, 2024, Hippo Valley said milling efficiencies are anticipated to recover on the back of improved cane quality, and after the satisfactory completion of the requisite annual maintenance programme, with a forecast to produce 202 860 tonnes of sugar at a cane to sugar ratio of 8,26.
“The company, through its strategic focus to improve yields, is looking forward to harvesting 945 471 tonnes of cane and receiving 739 329 tonnes of cane from private farmers in the 2024/25 season, a four percent increase from the current year.
During the period under review, cane deliveries from the firm’s plantations fell 15 percent below the prior year, due to lower cane yields and a reduction in the area harvested arising from a four-week delay to the milling season while cane delivery agreements were being negotiated.
Cane yields dropped to 89,20 tonnes cane per hectare (2023: 95,38 tonnes of cane per ha) resulting from reduced volume of higher-yielding “plant cane” harvested in the current year, and adverse weather conditions coming from a strong El Niño event occurring between October 2023 and March 2024.
“Private farmer cane deliveries contributed 46 percent (2023:42 percent) of the total cane supply, and were 1 percent below prior year, having experienced a six percent drop in yields after achieving 68,82 tonnes of cane per ha (2023: 73,40 tonnes of cane per ha).
“The milling season ended on December 21, 2023 with reduced sugar production by 12 476 tonnes, a six percent drop from prior year.
“The decrease was occasioned by the late season start-up, delays in processing harvested cane given the removal of rateable delivery quotas from cane supply agreements, as well as low milling efficiencies owing to the limited availability of critical spares (affected by cashflow constraints on account of the impact of cheap sugar imports),” said Hippo Valley.
This resulted in unscheduled mill stoppages and lost time available (a measure of plant reliability) increased to 17,8 percent from 14,6 percent recorded in the prior year.
Overall, 652 ha of cane was not able to be crushed and was carried over to the following season
Meanwhile, following the recent repeal of Statutory Instrument 80 of 2023 effective February 1, 2024, the local market anticipates to enjoy protection against unfair competition from cheap world market imports as the domestic market share is restored.
“Additionally, the reconfiguration of the route to market and implementation of innovative work streams to contain the cost of goods and services through Project Zambuko (a revenue enhancement and cost reduction project) will enable the business to achieve key metrics around profit maximisation,” it said.
Bongani Ndlovu