Govt to introduce bulk sugar procurement system – board

By Felix Andrew

Sugar harvesting in one of the sugar cane plantations in the country.

The government is contemplating to replace the current sugar importation system which involves many traders by introducing bulk procurement system in case there is shortage arising from closure or dysfunction of factories.


In an email interview, the Sugar Board of Tanzania (SBT) Acting Director General, Lusomyo Buzingo, declined to divulge when the exercise will start, but said it is one of the possible options that may be taken by the board to sort out the problem of sugar shortage.

The bulk procurement system has been as one of the ways to solve sugar shortage problems when it comes to importing the product, he said. He said stakeholders have agreed on the matter and the process is underway to replace the current system.

According to him the current system of sugar importation involves too many traders and is has too many challenges.

Asked whether the board has any plans to set indicative price for sugar in order to make the product stable countrywide, he said, that may be difficult due to the nature of the market economy.

“Our economy is a free market whereby prices of almost all consumer commodities are governed by market forces,” he said.

He said with the current drivers of the economy it is difficult to introduce “pan territorial prices for the product”.

On sugar smuggling, Buzingo, who is also the acting Regulatory Services Manager, said the government is always on the fight against smugglers of commodities.

The other agencies which are mandated to undertake checks on the borders have been working hand in hand to ensure that the product does not enter the country illegally.

Recently, revenue collecting authorities reported the capture of smuggled sugar in Mbeya and Morogoro regions.

However, he said, the main challenge is the presence of porous borders especially along the coastal line and at the borders with Malawi and Zambia. He thanked the people living around the areas for their support in controlling smuggling.

The support by local communities in the border regions in reporting any suspicious activities connected with sugar smuggling is of great importance as the authorities alone would not be in a position to fight this evil practice, he said.

According to the Agricultural, Food Security and Cooperatives minister, Christopher Chiza, the Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) and other agencies have a big to role to put to an end illegal sugar importations.

The minister said the move will safeguard the local sugar industry by enabling it to utilise the market and employ people. He said if TRA does its work properly then the government can achieve its goals of curbing all illegal sugar importations.

However, the minister warned local sugar producers against creating shortages that eventually translate in the hiking of prices.

Sometimes in 2010, the country faced an acute shortage of sugar which forced the government to intervene to ensure there are enough stocks of the product.
Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda allowed importation of the product so as to stabilise the market price that had started to rise.

However, some unscrupulous businessmen seem to be using the loophole for illegal importations.

Last year Tanzania imported 50,000 metric tonnes of sugar to plug a deficit that had pushed up the price of the commodity.
Currently, the retail cost of sugar in the country stands at between 2,000/- and 2,400/- up from 1,800/- last year.

During the rainy season most sugar mills in Tanzania close down business causing sugar shortage.

Tanzania’s annual sugar consumption stands at 480,000 tonnes but the country’s main producers - Tanganyika Plantation Company (TPC), Kilombero Sugar Company Limited in Morogoro Region, Mtibwa Sugar Estates also in Morogoro and Kagera Sugar Limited in Kagera Region — only manage to produce an average of 400,000 tonnes.