Agriculture minister Hussein Bashe made this affirmation at a State House briefing for top media officials, facilitated by the directorate of presidential communications.
He said the government will be able to control the sugar price and supply crisis without an overhaul of the regulatory environment governing the industry.
He said that some industrialists, who also import sugar apart from the sugar producing firms partly owned by the government, were also failing to place enough sugar in the market thus fuelling skyrocketing prices.
“There are some industrialists who have been given special permits to import sugar but they haven’t done so while they are quite aware of the current crisis, this is intolerable as the situation affects our people,” he said.
The government issued sugar import permits of not less than 100,000 tonnes but what was imported was 31,000 tonnes, he said, showing clear impatience with sugar producers who benefitted from import permits and had not worked to stabilise supplies.
“We will not continue protecting these people (industrialists), we have done so for many years and now we are going to conduct a major review and amendment of the Sugar Industry Act,” he emphasised, noting that after the changes they will remain as strategic investors benefiting from a number of tax reliefs.
He sought to assure the public that the sugar supply and price challenge is going to end soon as robust measures are being taken by the government.
A total of 84 traders have been arrested for suspicions of hiding sugar and will soon be brought to court, he said, noting that sugar production links large and small-scale farmers.
They deliver the sugarcane to factories on a regular basis, he said, noting that the current sugar crisis also occurred during the 2027/18 financial year. The problem stems from El Niño rains, paralysing sugarcane production and supplies to firms.
Last year, there was a shortage of only 30,000 tonnes while production was 460,000 tonnes and for the past two years, sugar price remained stable compared to neighbouring countries, he said.
This year, production was expected to reach 550,000 tonnes but due to the heavy rains, factory supplies plummeted, thus a total of 300,000 tonnes of sugar will be imported this year, he stated.
The National Food Reserve Agency (NFRA) was taking up the job to import the sweetener, with the decision having been reached in considering that sugar supply is a national safety concern.
Until the end of next month a total of 60,000 tonnes of sugar will be imported to help address the crisis, he said, while the Sugar Board of Tanzania (SBT) director, Prof Kenneth Bengesi said the demand of brown sugar stands at 552,000 tonnes and industrial sugar needs stand at 225,000 tonnes.
Current production stands at 200,000 tonnes with a gap of 200,000 tonnes of brown sugar and the entire need for industrial sugar, where at the start of this week production had reached 352,018 tonnes or 79 percent of total needs.
The amount in the market is estimated at 8,116 tonnes and 4,449 tonnes of imported sugar, thus leading to the hostile pricing trend of 4,500/-per kilo, he added.
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