Tongaat Hulett Ltd., South Africa’s second-biggest sugar producer, considers Zimbabwe “still very turbulent” and isn’t able to predict how long it will take to meet its goal of higher output there, according to Peter Staude, the company’s chief executive officer.

Its sugar output in Zimbabwe dropped to 259,000 metric tons last year from 298,000 tons in 2008, the company said today in a statement. Tongaat wants to boost production there to 600,000 tons.

“There’s still lots of water to run under the bridge,” Staude said in an interview today.

Zimbabwe introduced legislation last month compelling companies with assets of more than $500,000 to be 51 percent black-owned in five years. The plan has been disputed by members of the Movement for Democratic Change, which is part of a coalition government in that country.

“We are sympathetic” to the legislation, Staude said. The company has attracted funding from the European Union to set up black farmers in the country, he said.

Zimbabwe is attempting to rebuild its economy following a decade of political turmoil and recession under the leadership of President Robert Mugabe. It has the world’s second-largest reserves of platinum and chrome after South Africa and gold, coal, diamonds and nickel deposits. London-based miner Anglo American Plc and South African insurer Old Mutual Plc are among companies operating there.

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Tongaat aims to produce 300,000 tons of the sweetener in Mozambique in three years, Staude said. The company said it wants to boost total sugar output to 1.9 million tons a year from the 957,000 tons milled in the 2009-10 season.

Net income for 2009 rose to 2.87 billion rand ($370 million) from 649 million a year earlier on a 28 percent gain in sales to 9.11 billion rand, Tongaat said. The stock fell 1.41 rand, or 1.4 percent, to close at 96.75 rand in Johannesburg trading.

Illovo Sugar Ltd. is South Africa’s largest sugar producer.

By Bloomberg