November 27, 2023

By Lynda Kiernan-Stone, Global AgInvesting Media

Affiance Limited, a joint venture formed between Press Agriculture Limited – a company owned by Press Trust Limited –  and the MGT Trust Australia, has reportedly secured significant funding to transform existing tobacco farms in southern Malawi into the country’s largest Stevia farm. 

Vast in scale, the project involves 14 estates comprising more than 10,000 hectares in the Kasungu region, representing the largest ag project in the country since 1978, and an outsized potential for transforming the area into a key agricultural hub. 

Every estate involved in the project has access to key transportation infrastructure and water resources, and once the vision of this ambitious project is realized, it will include a 16-hectare greenhouse, a 300,000-metric-ton processing plant, an 800 KW power station, more than 540 kilometers of roads, and 340 kilometers of irrigation pipes. 

Given ongoing consumer shifts toward a more healthy lifestyle and diet, it is no wonder that tobacco fields are being targeted for conversion to Stevia production. 

Consumers have recently targeted sugar as the next ingredient to reduce or eliminate from their food choices – even above other ingredients, like salt, that have been shown to have connections to high blood pressure, or heart disease – according to research from the 2019 FMCG Gurus Global Active Nutrition Study. From a responded field of 26,000 people, the study concluded that 44 percent say that they are either very aware, or aware, of how much sugar they’ve consumed in the last 24 hours, compared to 39 percent that pay attention to fat or salt intake.

Given these concerns and consumer trends, partnered with the prevalence of diabetes and obesity, governments are requiring food and beverage companies to reduce the amount of sugar in their products, leading manufacturers to turn to alternatives like Stevia.

In some cases, another approach has been to enact a sugar tax, whereby higher-sugar beverages such as soda are taxed at higher rates, intensifying the pressure on companies to develop alternative product formulations.

Derived from the leaves of the Stevia Rebaudiana plant (native to South America), Stevia is a natural, zero-calorie alternative that gets its sweetness from compounds called steviol glycosides that are 200-350 times sweeter than traditional sugar.

The benefits are multi-faceted: for manufacturers, Stevia not only aligns with the demands of both the consumer and governmental policy. For the consumer, it has been proven to be a viable alternative to sucralose for Type 2 diabetic patients, having no effect on blood glucose, HbA1C, insulin, or lipid levels. And for the farmer, Stevia requires far less inputs compared to traditional sweetener crops, and has a carbon footprint that is 79 percent lower than high fructose corn syrup, 55 percent lower than beet sugar, and 29 percent lower than cane sugar. 

Riding this upside, by 2022, the global Stevia market had already reached a value of $705 million, according to data from IMARC Group, which expects the market to grow at an impressive CAGR of 8.1 percent between 2023-2028 to reach a value of $1.13 billion.

On the ground, this project is expected to generate approximately 1,300 jobs in Malawi, and bring an infusion of capital and industry that have the potential to strengthen the country domestically while raising its standing in contemporary global markets.

~ Lynda Kiernan-Stone is editor in chief with GAI Media, and is managing editor and daily contributor for Global AgInvesting’s AgInvesting Weekly News and  Agtech Intel News, as well as HighQuest Group’s Unconventional Ag. She can be reached at lkiernan-stone@globalaginvesting.com.

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