La Nouvelle Société Sucrière de la Comoé, or SN SOSUCO, is a public-private partnership based in Banfora, Comoé Province, south-western Burkina Faso. It specialises in :

• Sugarcane cultivation and the manufacture of light brown and refined sugar (granulated and cubed)
• The packaging and sale of sugar to domestic and international markets,
• New crop testing,
• The recovery and sale of sugar by-products such as pharmaceutical alcohol, produced from molasses by an autonomous distillery.

With a workforce of over 3,000, including 400 permanent staff, 450 seasonal workers and more than 1,800 day workers, SN-SOSUCO is Burkina Faso’s largest private employer.

The company’s operations have a direct economic impact on the development of the town of Banfora and the entire region.

Farming
Situated on a concession of 10,000 hectares, SN SOSUCO currently farms around 4,000 hectares, supplying its factory with some 300,000 tons of cane per year.

As supplement to annual rains, the cane is irrigated by an irrigation system pivot front-mounted spray booms (3,440 ha, 86%), a full coverage system (400 ha, 10%) and a micro irrigation (160 ha, 4%).

Water is fed by gravity from the Comoé, Toussiana and Lobi dams and surrounding lakes.

Industrial operations
The plant produces granulated sugar from sugarcane and comprises a sugar mill, a refinery, and maintenance facilities. A portion of this sugar is moulded and pressed into sugar cubes. The plant theoretical crushing capacity is 2,400 tons of cane per day.

Distribution
The sugar is sold on the domestic market through wholesalers via SN SOSUCO own distribution network including shops located in several regions of the country. The sugar is produced in a variety of qualities to suit consumer tastes and purchasing power.

Corporate Responsibility
In addition to its economic benefits, SN SOSUCO provides a range of social benefits for its workers and their families, specifically:

• A health centre equipped with laboratory and pharmacy,
• Workers’ housing at the factory site and in the town of Banfora,
• Literacy classes for workers,
• Support for the village’s cane and crop cultivation,
• Various supports in areas such as the provision of drinking water, the construction and operation of schools, the repair of access roads, etc…