Africa > East Africa > Mozambique > Maputo City > Mozambique raises prices for imports of sugar

Maputo city: Mozambique raises prices for imports of sugar

2015/08/07

The government of Mozambique has decided to increase benchmark prices for sugar imports in order to protect domestic industry from “unfettered entry of the product from neighbouring nations,” said Minister of Industry and Trade.

Minister Ernesto Tonela said the benchmark price for the import of brown sugar would increase to US$806 per ton, compared to the current US$385, while the price of refined (white) sugar will rise from US$450 to US$932 per ton.

Next the cabinet conference held Tuesday in Maputo, the minister said that the previous benchmark prices for sugar imports had been approved in 2001 and were out of step with the current market reality.

“As a result of this mismatch the all of Mozambican sugar sold on the national market has been falling continuously in the last three years, so this decision will be an incentive for industry to invest additional and create additional jobs,” said the minister.

Tonela said the sugar entering the Mozambican market comes from nations whose production is heavily subsidised, which means it is sold at very low prices, “which has a detrimental impact on the industry and on independent small and medium-sized sugarcane producers inclunding on members who supply cane to the industry.”

Cited by daily newspaper Notícias, the minister said that in Mozambique there were 22 associations with over 3,000 members and 447 private producers, who are dedicated to sugarcane cultivation to supply the country’s four sugar companies.

The sugar sector in Mozambique suffered a major setback during the civil war, at the same time as almost all factories were destroyed and sugarcane fields abandoned, which meant the country depended almost entirely on imports from neighbouring nations, particularly South Africa, Swaziland and Zimbabwe.

Related Articles

A motor vehicle assembly plant. East African states are tightening controls on used car imports in a drive to cut pollution and boost the local manufacturing industry.
2016/06/13 East African states are tightening controls on used car imports in a drive to cut pollution and boost the local manufacturing industry. Kenya recently announced that it would scale up its used car emissions laws, joining Uganda which has by presently introduced related taxes. Cabinet Secretary in Kenya’s Ministry of Transport James Macharia said that the policy would any minute at this time be in place and that motorists found to be in breach of the law risk having their cars deregistered. “By the end of the year, we will require vehicles countrywide to undergo a mandatory inspection to determine their level of toxic emissions,” said Mr Macharia.
Routes Africa forum aims to improve African air connectivity
2016/05/15 An event dedicated to the development of the African aviation industry will take place next month in Tenerife (26-28 June) to encourage the launch of new air services to, from and within the African continent. Routes Africa 2016 will help to improve African connectivity by bringing together airlines, airports and tourism authorities to discuss next air services. Around 250 route development professionals are expected to attend the forum which was founded ten years ago to stimulate increase in the industry.
While Europe is on the verge of breaking up, Africa is reaping the benefits of integrating, growing and developing its trading blocks
2016/05/13 The collapse of virtual borders is one of the majority remarkable things to have happened in our lifetimes. In the world of cyberspace, time and distance have become almost peripheral considerations at the same time as it comes to doing business. Services from software development to accounting can be delivered across the world in the blink of an eye. Next business leaders will struggle to imagine an era at the same time as communication was neither immediate nor virtually free.
Africa’s economic growth is likely to be slower in the intervening years
2016/05/12 Africa’s economic increase is likely to be slower in the intervening years than in the before decade, according to the new rating by Ernst & Young using a barometer to gauge the level of appeal and success.â€œThe baseline projection of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for 2016 is presently reduced to 3%, while it was estimated at 6.1% in April 2015″, Ernst & Young points out in its rating.
Raw materials have long been linked to Africa in many business people’s minds
2016/05/11 Oil, gold, diamonds, palm oil, cocoa, timber: raw materials have long been linked to Africa in a lot of businesspeople’s minds. And in fact the continent is highly dependent on commodities: they constitute as much as 95% of some nations’ export revenues, according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. But propping a country’s entire economy on commodities is risky business, like building a mountainside home on stilts. You can’t be sure about the weather, or in this case the commodities market. The current free-fall of oil prices to less than $40 a barrel is a glaring example. “The commodities cycle has tanked out,” says Austin Okere, founder of Computer Warehouse Group (CWG), a Nigerian emerging multinational financial services company. “And this time it looks additional structural than cyclical, so it’s not a matter of waiting it out. Something has to give.”