Consumer Association of Malawi (CAMA) has appealed to Competition and Fair Trading Commission (CFTC) to release names of traders that were found hoarding Sugar and being behind the high prices and scarcity of the commodity.
CAMA Executive Director John Kapito has said this in a statement today as the scarce commodity is being sold at about K3000 per packet against the recommended price of K2000.
Kapito said that the CFTC which was ordered by the State President to investigate and inform the Nation the reasons behind scarcities and high prices of sugar on the market has until today not released a comprehensive report with all the details regarding the Sugar scarcities and high prices apart from identifying and blaming some traders for hoarding Sugar without providing names of such unscrupulous traders and any form of punishment after they were identified.
Meanwhile, consumers continue experiencing scarcity and high prices of Sugar on the market.
“Unfortunately Sugar is a controlled commodity with no competition regarding its production,” he said.
He went on to say that the distribution of sugar on the Malawian market is not favoring the consumers because it is giving them no alternative choices of supply.
According to Kapito, Sugar distribution and pricing has remained a challenge to consumers as it is run by a syndicate of corrupt and unscrupulous producers and distributors whose motive has been taking advantage of the poor consumers and that syndicate colludes on pricing and distribution whose only motive is to maximize on profits and economically punish poor consumers who are going through one of the highest costs of living.
“It is therefore also our plea to the Ministry of Trade to immediately intervene and assist Consumers access Sugar at the recommended prices and hold accountable those unscrupulous traders that are demanding Consumers to buy other products when buying Sugar this is a practice that cannot be condoned by any civilized market,” he said.
