Agriculture Director at Illovo Sugar Africa

Illovo Sugar (Malawi) plc is the country’s leading producer of raw, refined and specialty sugars; employing more than 9000 employees. Illovo Sugar (Malawi) plc is part of Illovo Sugar Africa Group; a wholly-owned subsidiary of Associated British Foods plc (ABF).

Responsibilities

• Develop country’s Estate and Grower Agriculture strategy with a view towards long-term growth, development and sustainability
• Enhance agricultural functional excellence in country at both operations
• Leverage strategies to ensure sustained yield recovery at both estates
• Build strong agricultural leadership teams and a talent pipeline across both operations, leveraging the opportunities for learning and growth across the various Illovo operations.
• Sponsor the implementation of three in-play strategic initiatives including the Shire Valley Transformation Project (SVTP), the sugarcane variety selection centre at Dwangwa and the crop diversification programme.
• Leverage the support, guidelines and technical expertise of the Group Agricultural Team and COEs spread across the other Illovo Estates to ensure rapid adoption of best practice
• Promote and adhere to Illovo’s procedures, policies and guidelines, including, without limitation, those relating to SHERQ, Competition Law and Anti-Bribery and Corruption (ABC)

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Agriculture / Agricultural Engineering / Agricultural development. An additional business/commercial degree would be an advantage
• 10 years of working experience in sugar cane agriculture, at least 5 years in a senior agricultural operations position responsible for greater than 8,000 ha
• Proven track record of effectively developing and implementing agricultural strategies through managing budgets, people and resources to meet business KPIs
• Good business acumen, analytics skills and agricultural expertise, with ability to anticipate, interpret and respond to changes impacting on functional area and wider business