President Magufuli bans sugar imports

President John Magufuli

  President John Magufuli has banned sugar imports to protect the local sugar industry, which for many years has been hard hit by the continued supply of cheap and illegal sugar from abroad.

The president said the country could not achieve its envisaged industrialization targets if local factories were not protected from and empowered against such cheap imports.

"We have domestic factories that buy sugarcane from smallholder farmers. These factories produce sugar, provide employment and are a source of government revenue. But although we have enough of our own stock, there are people in government still arbitrarily issuing permits to import sugar," he said yesterday at State House in Dar es Salaam.

"These people are undermining this government's efforts ... I am now making it clear that no more sugar import permits will be issued unless under special circumstances," the president added.

He said some of the sugar being imported into the country had expired and was unfit for human consumption.

While Tanzania currently consumes around 590,000 tons of sugar annually, the four local factories - Kagera Sugar, Kilombero, Mtibwa and Tanganyika Plantation Company (TPC) -- produce around 291,000 tons, with the deficit being covered by imports.

The factories have warned on several occasions that they may be forced to lay off workers or even shut down operations if the government continues to allow cheap or illegal sugar imports to cripple domestic producers.

According to Jaffary Ally, a senior official at the Moshi-based TPC, the government loses around $40 million (over Tshs 86bn/-) from smuggled sugar imports.