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India's Exim Bank agrees to provide 640 mln USD loan for Ethiopia's sugar industry
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Addis Ababa, January 14,
2008 (WIC) - India has agreed to give Ethiopia a 640 million USD credit out of a total 1.3 billion USD needed to boost Ethiopia's sugar production, Reuters reported. Late last year Ethiopia announced plans to increase its annual sugar production to 1.3 million tonnes by 2011 from a current 300,000 tonnes. India's Exim Bank will finance the 640 USD million, according to the news agency. "It is the largest ever line of credit that India has provided to any country so far," Gurjit Singh, the country's ambassador to Ethiopia, said while signing an agreement between India and Ethiopia. The remaining 660 USD million will be covered by the Ethiopia government. The money will go mainly towards erecting a new factory at Tendaho in the country's Afar State, and expansion of Finchaa, one of the four existing sugar factories in Ethiopia within the next two years. "With the completion of Tendaho ... and the enhanced production of the existing four sugar factories ... annual sugar production is expected to reach up to 1.3 million tonnes within the next two years," Reuters quoted Trade and Industry Minister Girma Birru as saying. Tendaho will have an annual production capacity of 600,000 tonnes and will be Ethiopia's largest sugar factory. It will be located in the lower Awash Valley, in Afar State. Finchaa is in the west of the country in Oromia State and its annual production is expected to reach to 270,000 tonnes from the current 80,000 tonnes at the end of the expansion period. Ethiopia's other sugar factories are Wonji, Shoa and Methara. Wonji and Shoa, 100 kms east of Addis Ababa, are also undergoing expansion to increase their aggregate annual production output to 350,000 tonnes from the current 75,000 tonnes, according to a Sugar Development Study Paper. Methara Sugar Factory, 250 kms east of Addis Ababa, is also expected to increase its annual production to 190,000 tonnes from 120,000 tonnes currently. |
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