AfricaPress-Tanzania: CRACKDOWN on sugar hoarders has impounded nearly 130 tonnes of the sweetener with 36 traders arrested during the exercise.
The Sugar Board of Tanzania (SBT) yesterday confided to the ‘Daily News’ that a total of 127.6 tonnes were seized from five regions as the crackdown was ongoing countrywide to search the hoarders and traders who sell the commodity at high prices.
SBT Director General Prof Kenneth Bengesi said all arrested dealers were released on bail because of the Covid-19, pending their charges in courts.
The regions and number of arrested traders and tonnes of seized sugar in blacket are Dar es Salaam (10 traders, 38 tonnes), Morogoro (5 traders, 5 tonnes) and Dodoma (2 traders,14.5 tonnes).
Other regions are Tanga (6 dealers, 46.5 tonnes) and Kilimanjaro (13 traders, 23.6 tonnes).
The board conducted the operation in collaboration with the police force following a Prime Minister’s order last week.
The SBT emphasized that the exercise would be sustained.
Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa ordered all Regional Commissioners to embark on inspection to markets, warehouses and industries in the respective regions to identify sugar hoarders and those inflating the prices.
In different parts of the country, the police in collaboration with the SB have been carrying out the operation as consumers continued digging deeper into their pockets to have the sweetener on their tables.
When the Premier issued the directive last Wednesday, a kilogramme of sugar was trading at between 3,000/- and 4,500/- at retail price.
Mr Majaliwa argued that there was no reason for the sugar price to increase from its normal price because there was enough stock of sugar and another consignment had been imported.
Two days later, the Minister for Agriculture Japhet Hasunga and the Minister for Industry and Trade Mr Innocent Bashungwa, pegged indicative retail price for Dar es Salaam at 2,600/- per kilogramme.
Other regions like Arusha, Kilimanjaro, Manyara, Tanga, Morogoro, Coast the set price is 2,700/- per kg.
Over the weekend Prof Bengesi told the ‘Daily News’ that in regions like Dodoma they found some dealers selling the sugar in secret.
“When you go and ask for the commodity they would tell you that they have empty stock, but later you find people coming out with bags of sugar,” he revealed, stating that generally the exercise was successful.
In Dar es Salaam, a survey by this paper showed that some retailers were selling one kilogramme at higher prices, up to 4,000/- instead of the indicated price of 2600/-.
One of traders, Ms Sauda Hamdani explained that they were forced to sell at that price to get profit because they bought the commodity from the wholesalers at the same price of 2,600/- per kilogramme.
An officer of the board, who led the operation in the city, Mr Achi Omari, said they discovered that a bag of 50-kg of sugar was sold at 135,000/- while supposed to trade at around 90,000/-.
“We have seen traders hoarding even locally produced sugar to create the shortage of the commodity for their benefits,” Mr Omari stated.
