Malawi now facing sugar shortage
Just when are queuing for fuel and facing forex shortage, now there is no sugar in the supermarkets and shops, when it is available customers can only buy one packet.
A spot check in supermarkets in Lilongwe by Nyasa Times correspondent on Wednesday revealed a grim picture with the majority of them raitionioning the commodity to two packets per customer.
PTC and Shoprite supermarkets and Chipiku stores were also reportedly have short supply of sugar and limiting purchases.
Consumers were scrambling to buy the commodity.
Unscrupulous traders, anticipating more shortages in the coming weeks have been buying large stocks off supermarket shelves and reselling them at grocery shops at higher prices.
Malawi is facing the worse economic crisis ever after donors pulled out following governance and human rights concerns.
The aid freeze has brought a shuddering halt to more than five years of pacey economic growth and sparked a dollar shortage that is causing imports such as fuel and medicine to run dry.
Former Finance Minister and now Energy Minister, Goodall Gondwe, told reporter in Lilongwe that government is “engaging donors at various forums” but denied assertions that President Bingu wa Mutharika has sat in the way of a bailout plan that would ultimately rescue this country from its economic woes.
“This is not true because no donor has come up with that figure on the table,” Gondwe said.
