Tongaat Hulett results, output hit by southern African drought

Reuters
Farmers pack sugar cane in the southern Egyptian town of Nagaa Hamady , file. REUTERS/Asmaa Waguih

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South African sugar producer Tongaat Hulett flagged on Friday an 18 percent drop in full-year profit due to drought, which hit its main sugar growing regions. Headline earnings per share (EPS) for the year ended March are expected to have fallen 17.9 percent to 678 cents, Africa's second biggest sugar producer said in a statement. An El Nino-induced drought in southern Africa has crippled production of maize, sugar and other agricultural products. Tongaat Hulett said its total annual sugar production was expected to have fallen 291,000 tonnes to 1,023 million as the drought scorched sugar cane fields, with the biggest drop coming from South Africa which saw a 40 percent drop in output. Illovo Sugar last week warned its full-year profit could decline as much as 70 percent due to drought conditions. Tongaat Hulett's shares were down 0.43 percent at 112.56 rand by 1355 GMT. (Reporting by Zandi Shabalala; Editing by Mark Potter)