AfricaPress-Tanzania: INDUSTRIES and Trade Minister, Innocent Bashungwa has met with manufacturers and distributors of sanitizers to chart out their availability and increased production.
Speaking during the meeting here yesterday , Mr Bashungwa tasked The Fair Competition Commission (FCC) to ensure that there is unbiased competition in the business, and Tanzania Bureau of Standards (TBS) carry out a countrywide inspection that sees into it that only quality and reasonable price(s) of the sterilizers, masks and disinfectant handy wash are availed.
Explaining, he asked the manufacturers to exploit the glitch by increasing production that meets local demand and export to the neighboring countries.
The Minister said the meeting followed a number of tours in Dar es Salaam to see production at the industries, where vast raw materials could pose a challenge for massive production.
“There was a huge gap in terms of prices for the sanitizers… now that they are highly needed as the country fights coronavirus, thus joint efforts is important to address the issue,” said Mr Bashungwa.
However, the Minister cautioned the traders against taking the situation as a loophole to produce substandard sanitizers and make more money, saying that the government will not tolerate that at the expense of lives of Tanzanians.
Mr Bashungwa noted that it has come to their attention after the meeting that ethanol availability was a problem the manufactures were facing in order to produce sanitizers, which meet current demand.
He said TIRDO is producing enough ethanol, and asked the manufacturing companies to visit it, adding “We are in discussions with the sugar manufacturing companies on the need to produce more ethanol as a by-product to meet the raw materials’ demand.”
