Sugar price down from 2,500/- to 1,800/-

 The state-run Tanzania Sugar Board (TSB) yesterday issued an indicative retail price for the commodity, capping it at 1,800/- for one kilogramme, down from 2,500/-.

 

Speaking to reporters in Dar es Salaam, TSB director general Henry Semwanza assured the nation of sufficient sugar stocks in the country despite a recent ban on sugar imports issued by President John Magufuli.“

 

All local traders should observe the cap price and ensure that sugar is made available to consumers without hoarding the commodity,” Semwanza said, noting that such a move would automatically push prices down.

 

He said TSB officials in collaboration with government authorities including regional and district trade officers across the country will monitor and supervise implementation of this directive.  “The authorities will not hesitate to take legal action against traders who will try to either hoard sugar or unlawfully hike the price,” the TSB boss stated. President Magufuli announced the ban on sugar imports late last month in a move aimed at protecting the local sugar industry, for many years hard hit by the continued supply of cheap and illegal sugar from abroad.

 

The president said the country could not achieve its envisaged industrialisation targets if local factories were not protected from and empowered against such cheap imports.

 

However, the ban prompted some local sugar dealers to jack up prices on the pretext that the country was now facing a shortage of the commodity. 

 

Established local sugar producers then sought to disprove this, saying there was enough sugar in stock to last up to April this year, after which about 120 metric tonnes of the commodity would need to be imported as a temporary measure to cover the deficit. 

 

“The factories have a stock of 32,000 tonnes of sugar which is being sold to wholesalers, and some factories are still producing the commodity,” said Kilombero Sugar Company Ltd board chairman Ami Mpungwe, speaking on behalf of fellow producers. 

 

“(Also) our factories have not increased the price of the commodity. Sugar prices from all the factories range between 1700/- and 1800/- per kilogramme … there is no factory which has hiked the price after the government banned imports,” Mpungwe stated.

 

He said the government has set up a system which will only allow the importation of the amount to cover the deficit when the factories cease production, but added:

 

“Some dealers are not happy with this new system of importing the commodity because they were benefiting from the rampant importation of illegal sugar.” “Now they are using malicious tactics such as hiking the price so as to weaken government efforts to protect local factories,” Mpungwe said.

 

According to TSB, annual production figures for domestic sugar from the four major local factories - Mtibwa, Kilombero, Kagera, and Tanganyika Plantation Company (TPC) - currently stand at around 300,000 metric tonnes against an annual national demand of 420,000 metric tonnes, with the deficit usually covered by imports.

SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN