* Flexi-factory to produce 200,000 tonnes of sugar annually
* Sees energy production revenues hitting 40 percent
* Eyes wind power for 2010
By Jean Paul Arouff
PORT LOUIS, September 21 (Reuters) - A leading Mauritian sugar producer, Omnicane said on Monday it expected energy production revenues to match turnover from sales of the sweetener.
Omnicane Chief Executive Jacques d'Unienville said the company's new 6.3 billion rupee ($206 million) "flexi-factory" will produce 200,000 tonnes of sugar per year, roughly two fifths of the Indian Ocean island's total sugar exports.
Sugar companies in Mauritius have increasingly looked to diversify after the European Union announced a graduated 36 percent cut in its guaranteed price for African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) sugar. The final tranche takes effect this October.
"Sugar and energy should contribute about 40 percent each to total revenues while ethanol production should bring about 20 percent," d'Unienville told Reuters.
The sugar sector is a centuries-old pillar of the palm-fringed island's $9 billion-a-year economy, contributing around 3 percent of gross domestic product.
The nation of 1.3 million people is the leading sugar exporter from the African, Caribbean and Pacific bloc to the European Union.
"With the phasing out of the EU preferential prices we needed to climb up the value chain in order to be able to stay in business," d'Unienville said.
Omnicane has invested 6.3 billion rupees in the factory that produces sugar, energy and ethanol over the last five years and will plough in an additional 3.4 billion rupees during the next three years, he said.
The company forecasts its sugar exports will hit 115,000 tonnes between September and December this year.
ENERGY COGENERATION
Hit by seesawing global energy prices, the import dependent island targets to produce 40 percent of its electricity from renewable energy sources, including bagasse, within a decade.
In 2008, 19 percent of Mauritius' power came from burning bagasse, the waste generated when crushing sugar cane. That is already one of the world's highest ratios of renewable energy.
Between harvests, the flexi-factory burns coal to generate electricity, ensuring round-the-year power production.
"The installed capacity of the power cogeneration plant is the single biggest bagasse-coal installation in the world. Last year we produced 23 percent of the total energy consumption of the country," d'Unienville said.
The end of the EU's sugar protocol will see the price of raw sugar fall to 336 euros ($492) per tonne compared with an original guaranteed price of 523.70 euros.
From the 2009-2010 harvest, Mauritius will export refined sugar in place of raw sugar to German sugar giant Sudzucker, ending a long-standing relationship with the UK's Tate & Lyle.
On the energy front, Omnicane sees its power generation plans extending beyond sugar.
"The company is also planning to produce wind energy by 2010," d'Unienville said. ($1=30.55 Mauritius Rupee) ($1=.6827 Euro) (Additional reporting and writing by Richard Lough; editing by Helen Nyambura-Mwaura and Jon Loades-Carter)