Tanzania imports 100,000 tonnes sugar to curb shortage

Tanzanian Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa said on Wednesday the government has imported 100,000 tonnes of sugar to curb the ongoing shortage of the commodity.

He told the National Assembly in the east African nation's political capital Dodoma that the actual demand of sugar in the country was 420,000 tonnes annually, while local sugar factories could produce a total of 320,000 tonnes of the commodity per year.

"Indeed, our stock of the commodity has dwindled in recent days, but the government has already imported the remaining amount and will soon arrive in the country," Majaliwa said.

"I want to assure Tanzanians that the situation is going to get back to normal very soon. We decided to import 100,000 tonnes of sugar only to avoid crippling the business of our local producers," he said, adding that currently the country has a stock of 37,000 tonnes of sugar.

This was the first time the government admitted that there was shortage of sugar in the country while two months ago, the Sugar Board of Tanzania (SBT) said the country had enough stock of the commodity.

The government banned the importation of sugar early this year, stressing that the importation of the commodity was harmful to the existence of local industries producing the commodity. Enditem