Kapito charges! Says Illovo connived with Govt to create sugar supply scarcity just to raise its price
Executive Director of Consumers Association of Malawi (CAMA) John Kapito says recent scarcities of sugar on the market was deliberately done by Illovo Sugar knowing fully that they will use the scarcities to create demand and increase their prices which is a total abuse of its dominance of the Sugar market, assisted and facilitated by the Ministry of Trade that has behaved helpless and clueless during these sugar scarcities.
In a statement released today, Kapito says CAMA is deeply shocked with the recent Sugar price increase which has come after the recent manipulated sugar supply scarcities that pushed prices beyond the reach of many Consumers—a confirmation of the ongoing market dominance and abuse by Illovo Sugar Malawi Ltd 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, 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,” he said.
He added 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.
“The Government’s protection of monopolies like Illovo Sugar is negatively hurting Consumers and must be put under serious market scrutiny and Government should immediately identify alternatives and allow competition of the Sugar market for the benefit of Consumers,” he said.
He also noted that the current market dominance and abuse by Illovo Sugar Malawi has only shown that Government has so much interest on the protection of Illovo Sugar than Consumers and there is need for fair competition and trading on the sugar market.
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