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
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