Once processed farming products such as wheat, sugar cane and cotton not only provide food products (flour, sugar, cotton seed oil) but by-products as well. In order to enhance the potential of farming products the SOMDIAA Group aims at developing the production and marketing of wheat, sugar cane and cotton by-products.

1. THE SUGAR BUSINESS

The processing of sugar cane into sugar yields three by-products including:

• Molasses: The main by-product in the sugar industry, molasses is made of syrupy substances that remain after extracting the most part of sugars through crystallization and centrifugation.
  Molasses is used in the animal feed industry as well as for the production of alcohol, yeasts and citric acid. It can also be spread on fields partly replacing potassium soil builders thanks to its potash content.
  In Africa, molasses is also used on roads. It helps prevent dust flying up in the air on the dry dirt roads of Africa.
  Group plant capacity in terms of molasses output is 68,000 tons.
• la bagasse: Bagasse is the fibrous and ligneous residue resulting from sugar cane grinding after extracting the most part of the sweet juice.
  Bagasse is burned in boilers yielding water vapor, which is transformed into electrical power through turbine generators, thus ensuring plant self-sufficiency in terms of power requirements.
  Excess electrical power available through excess bagasse can also be sold over the national network, and help reduce fossil energy consumption as well as offset the negative carbon dioxide balance in our environment.
  Group plant capacity in terms of bagasse output is 645,000 tons.

2. THE WHEAT BUSINESS

• Bran: Bran belongs to the by-product family obtained after grain milling and after flour separation through seaving/sifting. Bran contains cellulose constituents (dietary fibers), proteins, minerals and vitamins. Thus its use is quite appropriate for the animal feed industry.
  Bran is divided into two types: fine bran and coarse bran.
  
• Wheat screenings
• Wheat middlings and wheat shorts: They consist of a blend of hull particles and flour crushed to obtain a consistent grain size.
  Wheat shorts contain more hull particles, therefore look like fine bran.
  Wheat middlings look like flour with specks of bran.