Illovo Sugar is a leading, global, low-cost sugar producer and a significant manufacturer of high-value downstream products. The group is Africa’s biggest sugar producer and has extensive agricultural and manufacturing operations in six African countries. Downstream products include furfural (used mainly in lube oil refineries for the purification of oils), furfuryl alcohol (used mainly to produce a resin in the foundry industry as a binder for foundry sands), Agriguard (an agricultural nematicide), diacetyl and 2.3-pentanedione (both used as high-quality natural flavourants), BioMass Sugar (a sugar cane-based fertiliser), ethyl alcohol and lactulose (a natural laxative). Illovo is listed on the JSE Limited. It is a subsidiary of Associated British Foods plc which holds 51% of the issued share capital.
 
Excellent climatic and soil conditions in the group’s countries of operation, accompanied by irrigation from secure water sources, are ideal for the cultivation of high-yielding and excellent quality sugar cane. Annual cane production of approximately 5.7 million tons is produced on agricultural estates in South Africa, Malawi, Zambia, Swaziland, Tanzania and Mozambique. Annual sugar output amounts to approximately two million tons.
 
The group is a major supplier of sugar to African consumer and industrial markets, particularly in its own countries of operation. Illovo also has significant and increasing access to preferential markets in the European Union (EU) and the United States of America (US), whilst the operations outside South Africa also have access to the South African Customs Union (SACU) market in terms of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Sugar Protocol on Trade. Pre-packed and bagged sugar is supplied into other regional markets within Africa. The group, through the South African sugar industry exports sugar into the world free market. Syrup and speciality sugars are produced in South Africa and Zambia mainly for domestic consumption, whilst speciality sugars made in Malawi and Zambia are produced for preferential markets in the EU and in the case of Malawi also in the US.