Illovo Sugar (Malawi) plc installed two new vitamin A dosing plants at Dwangwa Sugar Factory in Nkhotakota to enhance the efficiency of sugar fortification, a development that the company has touted as an achievement company’s wider vitamin A premix localisation project.

According to Illovo Sugar (Malawi) plc managing director Mark Bainbridge, the new machinery is able to fortify 30 tonnes of sugar per hour, replacing the old one with the capacity to fortify 20 tonnes per hour.

In February this year, MRA warned that Sugar must contain Vitamin A, as recommended sugar by the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Tourism. The warning came while addressing smuggled sugar, while adding that Vitamin A is a supplement that is not in the smuggled sugar. “Over the past years, vitamin A deficiency was a public health concern but not anymore as findings of the 2015/16 Demographic and Health Survey indicate that vitamin A deficiency prevalence in Malawi has declined to four percent.” said Bainbridge.

In other news, Illovo Malawi introduced smaller packs of 220 grams and 500 grams to enable low-income families to access vitamin A fortified sugar. Illovo Malawi also announced a jump in profit to K8.1 billion in the six months ended February 28 2019 from K7 billion despite a drop in revenue. The profit jump is higher than the K6.9 billion profit the company made during the same period last year, representing a 15.7% increase.