Tanzania government provides sugar situation update as crisis begins to ease
What you need to know:
- Tanzania has been grappling with a sugar shortage since October last year following domestic insufficient production after manufacturing plants opted to reduce and others suspended production due to excessive rains.
Dar es Salaam. The government provided a sugar situation update Friday on March 8, 2024 as the crisis begins to ease following price reports recorded from different parts of the country.
Tanzania has been grappling with a sugar shortage since October last year following domestic insufficient production after manufacturing plants opted to reduce and others suspended production due to excessive rains.
The shortage triggered a skyrocketing of sugar prices to an average of Sh4,500 and Sh6,000 per kilo in different parts of the country, something that forced the government to take different measures to address the crisis.
The measures include giving permits to sugar manufacturers to import 200,000 tonnes of the product to rescue the situation as well as warning hoarders.
Providing the sugar situation update, the Sugar Board of Tanzania (SBT) Director General, Prof Kenneth Bengesi, said already 32,000 tonnes of the commodity have arrived in the country from importing countries.
“Apart from the 32,000 tonnes that have already been distributed to different parts of the country, some other 4,700 tonnes of the product have arrived at the port of Dar es Salaam. Once the unloading process is completed, the consignment will be distributed for public consumption,” said Prof Bengesi.
He said another freight of 10,000 tonnes was expected to arrive Sunday on February 10 in the country to further ease the crisis.
Regarding the domestic sugar production trend, he said producing companies have scaled up production to 60 percent despite being below the normal production capacity.
“The infrastructure of production industries remains relatively unable to support normal sugar production due to the ongoing rains, especially in Morogoro Region, as Kilombero, Mkulanzi, and Azam sugar companies are among those struggling,” he said.
According to the SBT boss, Mtibwa Sugar, Kagera Sugar, and TPC Limited are the only factories currently producing sugar sustainably.
On why supermarkets were selling sugar at one kilogramme per individual, he said the directives were issued when the country was facing an acute sugar shortage and some people took advantage of the situation to buy at the normal price and hiked it to other individuals.
“To control this, we decided that supermarkets would sell a kilogramme to each individual because we believed that amount could sustain most families from three to five days,” he said.
Following the ongoing sugar scarcity, regional and district authorities have been collaborating with the sugar board to ensure prices at the wholesale and retail levels remain per released indicative prices set by the government.
The government notice No. 40 dated January 23, 2024, directs regional and district commissioners to supervise and ensure indicative prices are respected in their respective areas of jurisdiction.
The Minister of State in the President's Office (Regional Administration and Local Government), Mr Mohamed Mchengerwa, said they were taking action in response to the ongoing sugar shortage.
He said the government had set indicative prices that must be adhered to, noting that regional authorities had issued the names of agents approved by the government to trade the product through the Ministry of Agriculture for close follow-ups.
Mr Mchengerwa directed the arrest of businessmen contravening the government’s directives to trade the product at the indicative prices and get arraigned for economic sabotage.
Deputy Minister for Agriculture David Silinde was quoted last month as saying the country was using 1,400 metric tonnes of the product every day.
Agriculture Minister Hussein Bashe announced the government’s plans to table in Parliament a proposal to amend the Sugar Industry Act of 2001 in the forthcoming budget session.
The proposal, according to Mr Bashe, aims to liberalise the sugar market, allowing local manufacturers to compete with foreign companies after decades of protection by the government,
"We have protected them enough, they have grown up," he noted. "With the proposed amendments, sugar gaps will no longer be filled by local producers. We can’t keep working with irresponsible members of the private sector,” he said.
To ensure fair market practices, Minister Bashe stated that the government had issued a notice to local manufacturers to revise their distribution systems by establishing sugar depots in each region.
