Isaura Daniel*
São Paulo – The project for a Syrian-Brazilian refinery should start being implemented in the beginning of next year. The Brazilian company Cristalsev and Cargill Africa made a partnership with three Syrian companies, Assaf Invest, Sugar Invest and Sugar Mezzanine, to build a sugar refinery in the Arab country, as was announced by ANBA in the beginning of last year. The initiative was the result of a journey made by Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to the Arab countries in December 2003.
The initial plans were that the industry should start operating during the first half of this year, which ended up not happening. According to the director at Cristalsev, Maurílio Biagi Filho, there is the possibility that it may start being built in the beginning of next year, however there is still no set date nor forecast for the beginning of operations.
The refinery will have the capacity of processing one million tonnes of sugar per year. The raw sugar will be supplied by Brazil, both by Cristalsev, responsible for the sales of sugar from nine mills from the state of São Paulo, as by other companies in the national market. The investment made in the refinery will be of US$ 150 million. As well as the Syrian companies, a foreign financing company is also participating in the project. Cargill will have 40% of the business, Cristalsev will have 10%, and the remaining capital will belong to the remaining companies. Cristalsev is going to supply the equipment and technology for the factory.
The companies already have the land for construction of the refinery, which will be located in the city of Homs, an industrial centre in the Arab country. The sugar produced, however, will not only stay in Syria. It will also be distributed to Jordan and Lebanon. The Arab countries are already great importers of Brazilian sugar and have growing demand for the product. "Many refineries are being built in that region," stated Biagi. Syria also produces sugar in bulk, but the product is made from sugar beet and the production is small.
Between January and November this year, Brazil had revenues of US$ 1.2 billion with sugar sales to the Arabs. The value represented an increase of 22.8% over the same period last year, when export revenues totalled US$ 983 million. The sale of sugar to the Syrian-Brazilian refinery should generate revenues of US$ 200 million, according to forecasts by the Brazilian minister of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade, Luiz Fernando Furlan, when the project was announced.
Cristalsev, which will be one of the sugar suppliers to the refinery in Homs, is located in the southeastern Brazilian city of Ribeirão Preto and sells sugar and alcohol on the foreign and domestic market. The Cristalsev clients include large food industries in sectors like soft drinks, chocolate, ice cream, sweets, juices, jelly and jams.
*Translated by Mark Ament and Silvia Lindsey
