Chakwera Tonse Govt accused of protecting Illovo’s interests over locals on Sugar prices
LILONGWE-(MaraviPost)-The Consumer Association of Malawi(CAMA) has condemned the current market dominance and abuse by Illovo Sugar Malawi which has shown that President Lazarus Chakwera’s Tonse Alliance government has more interest in protecting the company than locals.
CAMA has therefore urged the Competition Fair and Trade Commission (CFTC) to investigate Illovo’s sugar trading misconduct.
In a statement, CAMA Executive Director, John Kapito said recent scarcity of sugar on the market is deliberately done by Illovo Sugar knowing fully that the company will use the situation to create demand amid panic from the general public.
Kapito observes that the increase in sugar prices is a total abuse of Illovo’s dominance over the Sugar market accusing the Ministry of Trade has behaving helplessly and clueless during times of sugar scarcity.
Kapito added, “The recent Sugar price increase has come after the recent manipulated sugar supply scarcities that pushed prices beyond the reach of many Consumers.”
“This is a confirmation of the ongoing market dominance and abuse by Illovo Sugar Malawi PLC as a monopoly or major sugar producer and distributor, the recent sugar scarcities are not supposed to be the reasons to push sugar prices up”.
He further said the current sugar prices on the parallel market should not be used as the basis for pushing up sugar prices and Consumers should not be punished with high prices because of the scarcity that has been manipulated.
CAMA Executive Director also pointed out that Illovo Sugar being the major supplier of sugar on the market are supposed to be under market scrutiny by the Ministry of Trade to protect Consumers from these market abuses.
He therefore condemns the Chakwera government’s protection of monopolies such as Illovo Sugar saying, “It negatively hurts Consumers and must be put under serious market scrutiny with immediate effect and identify alternatives and allow competition of the Sugar market for the benefit of Consumers”.
