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Sucoma denies dumping allegations
By
Ayam Maeresa - 10-10-2002 |
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The Sugar Corporation of Malawi (Sucoma) has said Kenyan sugar manufacturers are using other producers in the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa) as scapegoats to cover up their own ineffiencies.
Sucoma public relations officer Irene Phalula, whose company is one of the exporters to Kenya, said in Blantyre that allegations by Kenya Sugar Board (KSB) that imports from the region are suffocating the domestic industry are not true.
The sugar board told the East African Standard last week that the survival of the domestic industry was threatened by a flood of cheap imports from exporting countries in the region.
It said investigations showed that Comesa member states such as Malawi were exporting sugar into their domestic market at a discounted price of US$275 per tonne, 40 percent lower than the price of locall-manufactured sugar.
At the price of US$275 per tonne, only US$60 cover shipping expenses, while the balance of US$210 constitutes the actual dumping cost, said KSB. It claimed that the same quantity costs US$445 in Malawi.
Phalula said being a net importer of sugar, Kenya requires 200,000 metric tonnes to meet local demand and so far countries such as Sudan, Swaziland and Malawi contribute to fill the deficit.
She said exporting countries will not crush Kenya’s sugar industry as alleged because the major price decider in that country is Mumias, the largest sugar producer.
“The pricing strategy by the KSB was to continually drop the price to force importers to stop importing. As the price was eroded on a monthly basis, the importers have been forced to reduce their prices,” said Phalula.
She said an offer by the Association of Sugar Importers to buy up the Mumias stock as a means to stabilise the price was rejected by the company.
Sucoma will this year supply 28,000 metric tonnes.
By constantly lowering the price and refusing to enter into dialogue with Comesa exporters and Kenyan importers, the Kenyan industry is threatening its own viability, said Phalula.
Said she: “Malawi does feel threatened that import restrictions will affect the market access to Kenya. However, there is a strong belief that the problems that Kenya face could easily be resolved internally and with the cooperation of importers and supplying countries alike.” |
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