Ethiopian Review

By Muluken Yewondwossen

The price of sugar has risen by more than 200 birr per quintal on the local market.
According to dealers, the main factor for the price increment is the decline in the amount of the product offered at last week’s auction, but officials at the Ethiopian Sugar Development Agency (ESDA) said the amount offered had remained the same.
In last week’s auction, which is held every two weeks at the agency, EADA delivered only l00, 000 quintals of sugar, which is less by 20,000 quintals than the previous auction, the dealers said.
A source at the Local Marketing Department of the agency told Capital the main reason for the current sugar price hike is the increase in demand, not a drop in supply.
He said the local state-owned sugar factories, Metehara, Wonji and Fincha, are producing the product at the usual rate.
All three factories produced 35,000 tons more sugar than last year. Wonji Sugar Factory produced 57,000 tons, but expects over 70,000 tons this year. Fincha is expected to produce over 22,000 tons more than last year’s 88,000 tons, while Metehara plans to produce the same amount it did last year, 130,000 tons.
Yonas Benyam, a businessman involved in the sugar trade, thought the price rise was down to a shortage: “The price of one quintal sugar that sold on last week auction exceeded by a hundred birr (1,190 birr per quintal) from the previous time, which leads to the price increment on the market,” he told Capital.
Currently, the Government sells both imported and locally produced sugar at auction for wholesalers and factories. It also distributes sugar to the public through the state-owned Merchandise Wholesale and Import Trade Enterprises at subsidised prices.
Habtamu Regassa, General Manager of the Foreign Marketing Department at the agency, told Capital, currently the agency is importing Brazilian sugar, while another 25,000 metric ton sugar is already on its way and is expected to arrive in early June.
According to Habtamu, plans to buy another 50, 000 tons of sugar that should reach Djibouti in July are under negotiation.
The agency plans to import 165,000 tons of sugar this fiscal year, which exceeds last year’s imports by 10,000 tons.

(Capital)