Mr Opulukwa is also the Meatu MP on the Chadema ticket.
Ms Magdalena Sakaya (CUF - Special Seats) echoed
similar sentiments: “Mr Chairman, I need the government to tell me why
it is allowing sugar imports while we have enough of the product in our
country….I find it difficult to understand why could the government be
so inconsiderate to its people who are losing jobs as they fail to
compete with imports,” said Ms Sakaya who doubles as the opposition
party’s deputy secretary general for Tanzania Mainland.
The debate yesterday also dwelt on issues
pertaining to how Tanzanian farmers are being duped by buyers on the
issue of prices of cash crops like tobacco cashew nuts, cotton, coffee,
tea, sisal and cloves.
Some MPs, especially those from Morogoro Region
called on the government to consider setting the headquarters of the
Tanzania Agriculture Development Bank – which is slated to open for
business on July 1, 2015 – in Morogoro or in any other region that is
famous for farming.
But in response, Mr Wassira said the bank will be
headquartered in Dar es Salaam but it would later extend its services to
the rest of the country.
Agriculture, Food Security and Cooperatives minister Stephen Wassira.
Dodoma. Sugar imports will continue to bridge the gap between demand and supply, Agriculture, Food Security and Cooperatives minister Stephen Wassira says. Yesterday, He chided those agitating for a halt in sugar imports, saying “they are ignorant of the market forces and tricks” of the commodity.
Requesting the National Assembly to endorse
Sh353.14 billion for his ministry during the 2015/2016 financial year,
Mr Wassira said Tanzania produces an average of 300,000 tonnes of sugar
for domestic use annually.
The country’s demand stands at 420,000 tonnes of
sugar for domestic consumption plus other 170,000 tonnes of sugar for
industrial use yearly.
“If we stop importing sugar prices will rise. When
that happens, politicians will go around the country telling wananchi
that the ruling party has raised sugar prices to collect money for
campaigns during the October polls,” he said.
While acknowledging that the industry faces
challenges of sugar smuggling, sale of the commodity meant for transit
as well as industrial sugar being sold to consumers, he said some of the
arguments against import licences of the product were sheer propaganda
He said when local producers complained about
imports, claiming that they were closing up shop, he invited all the
four producers — Kilombero, TPC Limited, Mtibwa Sugar and Kagera Sugar —
to a discussion.
“I asked each company about the quantity of sugar
in its warehouses….By that time, Kilombero and TPC had some quantities
that were not enough for local consumption….Mtibwa Sugar said it did not
have even a single tonne of sugar during that time while Kegera had
only 5,000 tonnes but the noise was so high that some quarters within
the country probably believed that the country was out to strangle local
producers,” said Mr Wassira, who also doubles as the Bunda MP.
However, he said the government was taking measures to deal with some of the challenges in the industry.
Transit sugar is now being escorted by the
Tanzania Revenue Authority and other state organisations until it enters
the importing country while routine checks are conducted in a number of
areas that have been identified to be entry points for smuggled items.
He said the Sugar Board of Tanzania issued
licences to 25 companies to import a total of 100,000 tonnes of the
commodity during the financial year ending June 2015. Of the quantity,
88,940.25 tonnes will be directly imported while other 11,059.75 tonnes
of transit sugar will be taxed so it can be sold within the country.
Debating Mr Wassira’s budget proposals, some MPs
said it was a shame that the country was killing its own industries by
allowing sugar imports thereby discouraging job creation by local
producers.
“Mr Chairman, in Kilimbero, for example, the
investor refused to buy sugarcane from local farmers because the
investor has failed to sell his sugar – which has been stockpiled in his
factory – because sugar imports have destroyed the local market,” said
Mr Meshack Opulukwa, the shadow minister for Agriculture, Food Security
and Cooperatives.
SODDOM and GOMMORAH,THIS HAPPENED AT A CLUB OF MOMBASA...
