The Zambia Sugar Company Plc in Mazabuka in Southern province has started offloading sugar on the market in a bid to cushion the prevailing shortage of the commodity in the country.
Corporate Affairs Manager, Lovemore Sievu, disclosed to ZANIS in Mazabuka that most towns in the province have already started receiving the commodity.
Mr. Sievu said 60 metric tonnes of sugar has been delivered to Livingstone but did not disclose the quantities dispatched to Monze, Choma and Kalomo districts.
He said Lusaka, which is facing a serious shortage of sugar, would receive 200 metric tonnes this on Monday
Mr. Sievu said there are 28 trucks that were waiting to load for supply to Lusaka and Copperbelt towns.
“The rate at which the packing of sugar is done is impressive and the company was working in accordance with the assurance it gave to government,” Mr Sievu said
He reiterated that on Monday, the company would off load one million kilogrammes of sugar on the market while another six million kilogrammes would be off loaded by Friday this week.
He urged consumers to stop buying the commodity in panic saying the market would soon be saturated with sugar in all parts of the country.
But Mazabuka town, which is in the heart of Zambia Sugar Company, has been hit by a critical shortage of the commodity.
The price of a one kilogramme packet is now fetching between K 9,000 and K 12,000 in some retail shops.
Markets by themselves cannot correct distrotions without an effective and active government. The best thing to do here is to fire Mutati at Commerce for not doing his work. He has embedded himself with LPM too deeply with the new slave owners they prefer to call investors at the expense of the vast majority of our citizens.
were they hoarding!!!
sweat sweet sugar we missed you so much on the copperbelt.we were buying you at k22000 per 2kg.hell that was too much.anyway well come on cb we want to chew you this time around.
It is not fair to have exorbitant and unfordable price for a locally and self-sufficiently grown product such as our Zambian sugar. Outside demand should not cause shortage for the locals and a good marketing strategy by producers should ensure that the local market is met first before entertaining export quotas.
“The price of a one kilogramme packet is now fetching between K 9,000 and K 12,000 in some retail shops.”
Why this big margin? Seriously, a range of ZK 3,000.00 with a space of one or so kilometre is a bit too much. Let work out a system where a common Zambian will not be exploited Zambia Sugar plc. I recall celtel or some other mobile phone company issued a statement regard the cost of air-time (talk-time) across the whole country.
Please, please, please. Do something about this disparity!
Why Hoard Zambia Sugar?