20% price hike for sugar
A bitter aftertaste awaits consumers with a sweet tooth when they load sugar into their shopping trolley after 7 April, since the price of white sugar will rise by 20% then.Ian Collard, chairman of the Namibian Agricultural Trade Forum (ATF), said in a statement that a rise in the price of white sugar is inevitable as sugar packers in the country find it “extremely difficult” to obtain sufficient quantities from suppliers within the Southern African Customs Union (SACU).
South Africa and Eswatini (Swaziland) are the only SACU countries that produce sugar.
He said that Namibia and other SACU countries that are net importers of sugar have always been able to obtain sufficient quantities of white and brown sugar from these two countries. “However, supply through these two sugar-producing countries has not only become more expensive in recent years but also decreases every year from December to March when the production season ends.”
The riots last year in KwaZulu-Natal as well as in Eswatini and strikes in the sugar industry led to smaller harvests. As a result, South Africa and Eswatini no longer have refined sugar available and the new harvest season has not yet begun.
He said that countries like Namibia are thus forced to look for sugar suppliers outside SACU. However, neither of those two countries can export sugar to Namibia in April and May. As the two countries enjoy tariff protection, SACU countries have to pay a massive 40% levy when they import sugar from elsewhere in the world, he explained.
Collard said that in light of this, some sugar packers in Namibia have no choice but to increase the price of sugar.