Tanzanian government details measures to solve sugar crisis

Dar es Salaam. Regional and district commissioners will have to collaborate with the Sugar Board of Tanzania (SBT) in an effort to ensure that retailers abide by the recently announced cap prices for sugar.

This comes even as the product fetches between Sh4,000 and Sh5,000 per kilogramme across the country against the government’s recommended price of between Sh2,700 and Sh3,000 as announced late last month.

The Minister of State in the President’s Office (Regional Administration and Local Governments, PO-RALG), Mr Mohamed Mchengerwa, said the government was taking action in response to the challenges.

In response to the sugar shortage, the government permitted the importation of 50,000 metric tonnes of the sweetener for January and February this year. The shortage, the government believes, was occasioned by a slowdown in manufacturing as heavy rains disrupted harvests.

Minister Mchengerwa said in response to the shortage, the government allowed the importation of sugar, and 100,000 metric tonnes of sugar have arrived in the country.

“The offices of regional administrative secretaries countrywide have issued names of agents allowed by the government through the ministry of Agriculture submitted to the heads of regions and districts in collaboration with RAS to distribute the sugar countrywide and supervise its sale,” he said.

He directed all businesspeople failing to sell the commodity at indicative prices to be arrested and charged with economic sabotage.

“I don’t expect to see the heads of districts or regions failing to give information to the public on how the government continues to take various measures to solve the challenges,” he said.

Speaking to The Citizen yesterday, Deputy Minister for Agriculture, Mr David Silinde, said they expect to have resolved the sugar crisis at the end of the week. He said that so far, a total of 100,000 metric tonnes have arrived in the country.

“As we are speaking today (February 21), 25,000 tonnes of sugar that arrived some days ago are being offloaded at the Dar es Salaam Port,” he said.

He further explained, saying that the country uses 1,400 metric tonnes of sugar daily. According to him, 36,000 metric tonnes of sugar are also expected to arrive in the country next week.

“Other than the imported sugar, the country is also producing 1000 metric tonnes of sugar daily from the operational factories, including Kilombero Sugar Company, TPC, Kagera Sugar, Mtibwa Sugar Estates, and Bagamoyo Sugar Factory, among others,” he said.

He stressed that the government expects to have enough sugar by the end of the week and that prices will have stabilised.

The Citizen contacted Bakhresa Sugar Limited, a privately owned sugar manufacturer owned by the Bakhresa Group, an industrial company.

Head of Corporate Affairs, Hussein Sufiani, said they resumed production 10 days ago because the situation was not favourable following the rains.

“We are currently producing the little we can and supplying it to the areas where we normally take our commodity,” he said.

Speaking separately to The Citizen, TPC Ltd Administrative Executive Officer, Jafari Ali, said they are continuing with production after the rains stopped.

“We trust the government; everything is going well,” he said.

In its fresh effort to reign in the sugar industry, TSB said retailers in the Southern Highland Zone regions of Iringa, Mbeya, Songwe, and Njombe are compelled to sell the sweetener at a price that ranges between Sh2,700 and Sh3,000.

Signed by the TSB director general, the notice compels retailers in Dar es Salaam, Morogoro, and coastal regions to sell a kilogramme of sugar at a wholesale price of between Sh2,600 and Sh2,800 so that consumers can access the product at a retail price of between Sh2,700 and Sh3,000.

In the central zone of the country (Dodoma, Singida, and Tabora regions), the indicative price is Sh2,650 to Sh2,800 for wholesale and Sh2,800 to Sh3,000 for retail.

Retailers in the Lake Zone (Mwanza, Geita, Shinyanga, Simiyu, and Mara) are obligated to sell a kilogramme of sugar at anything that does not exceed Sh3,000, while in the Tanga, Kilimanjaro, Arusha, and Manyara regions, the sweetener should be sold for a wholesale price of between Sh2,600 and 2,800. It should, however, retail at a price of between Sh2,700 and Sh3,000.

Residents of Kagera, Kigoma, Katavi, and Rukwa regions will pay the highest amount to get a kilogramme of the sweetener. In the four regions, TSB caps the retail price of the product at Sh3,200. The price caps, according to the sugar board, have been prepared in line with the Sugar Industry Act No. 26 of 2001 (Cap. 251).