Tanzania sugar board warns traders against profiteering

The industrial price of sugar at the TPC Ltd Sugar Factory in Kilimanjaro Region has continued to be Sh116,000 per bag, but wholesalers have hiked the price from Sh122,000 to Sh130,000 for a 50-kilo bag.

The factory serves Kilimanjaro, Arusha, Tanga, Manyara and Singida regions.

The situation led to a feeling that some sellers, especially in the northern regions of Kilimanjaro, Arusha, Tanga and other towns bordering Kenya, may have been smuggling the commodity through unofficial routes.

However, speaking with The Citizen yesterday, SBT Director General Prof Kenneth Bengesi said the increase in prices was caused by sugar factories delaying to resume production and wholesalers raising prices arbitrarily.

"Unscrupulous businessmen have hiked prices for no reason because industrial prices have not gone up as distributors and wholesalers are the ones, who have raised prices. If you go to the factories, the prices are still the same," he said.

"The main cause was the turbulence of the rains that fell in June, forcing factories to delay the resumption of production. As we speak, all the factories have already restarted production. The government is monitoring the situation very closely," he said.

"The government has started working on it to allay fear and within a short period the problem will be over. The government will take stern action against all those people hiking prices without any apparent reason because sugar is available except that there is panic (fear) among people feeling that a shortage of sugar is going to happen," he said.

"You can't tell me it's because of transport problems while the price of fuel for the month of July has dropped. It's a lie to the citizens," he insisted, adding that some buisinesspeople take advantage of production delays to hike prices.

For his part, the factory’s administrative Executive Officer, Mr Jaffary Ally, denied claims that their company had increased the price of sugar, insisting that it had remained at Sh116,000 per 50 kilo bag.

"We have made sugar supplies in the market, exceeding the demands of the four regions. Our three regions of Arusha, Kilimanjaro and Manyara use 220 tonnes per day. If you include Tanga and Singida, we use an average of 350 tonnes per day," he said.

"We have never run out of sugar supplies that we have since last season. So, nobody can claim that we have had run out of the sugar supplies. Currently, our sales have gone up, instead of selling 350 tonnes, we now sell 600 tonnes per day, which has almost doubled," Mr Ally said.

The spokesperson for Azam Bagamoyo Sugar Plant Hussein Sufiani, was quoted as saying that their factory stopped production in November 2022 due to weather conditions and resumed production on July 10, expressing that the sugar scarcity may have caused by a slight instability in the market.

Mr Abel Magese, the production manager of the Superdoll Group Company, which owns Mtibwa and Kagera sugar factories, said they have not raised prices, explaining that the retail price may have gone up because of the increase in transport costs.

A study carried out by The Citizen on Tuesday this week, revealed that in some towns the price of the commodity had increased from Sh2,800 to Sh3,000 per kilo and in some areas hitting at Sh4,000 per kilo, sparking fear among the customers of the product.

The regions, where the price of sugar was found to have been increased include Mara, Kagera, Arusha, Mtwara, Kilimanjaro and Ruvuma.