By Pemphero Malimba:
Some small-scale bakers have expressed concern over the scarcity of white sugar in markets across the country.
In separate interviews, the bakers said the problem has been there since September last year.
One of the bakers from Lilongwe, Taonga Chauka—who runs Mrs D Kitchen—said the scarcity of the commodity had affected their businesses as they were being forced to buy sugar at exorbitant prices in Mozambique and South Africa.
“Because of the scarcity of sugar in local stores, we have opted to be buying sugar from outside Malawi so that we can still generate something from our businesses. You would think there is a choice but no; we have no choice. It’s either we buy the sugar elsewhere at a higher price, say K8,000 per kilogramme, or we have no orders at all,” Chauka said.
She, therefore, urged Salima Sugar Company and Illovo Sugar Malawi to address the problem.
“We would like to urge sugar-making companies to start bringing white sugar to our stores again. It’s either we buy the sugar in large quantities or small quantities but at least we should be able to get what we want: white sugar. We are tired of buying expensive sugar and using it for making two or three cakes only,” she said.
Another baker, Merrium Pondani—who runs Queens Cakery and Edibles in Blantyre— described white sugar as a crucial commodity to bakers.
“White sugar is one of our most important ingredients. Without it, our businesses suffer,” Pondani said.
She said it was unfortunate that some main retail shops in the city stopped stocking the commodity over three months ago.
“We are now forced to either increase prices of our cakes and pastries or reduce the number of orders we take. But if we charge too much, customers won’t buy and if we reduce our orders, we won’t make enough money to sustain our businesses. It’s a lose-lose situation,” she said.
Last week, chairperson for government-owned Salima Sugar Company, Wester Kossamu, disclosed that their produced sugar for the 2024 season was finished.
He said that was why their sugar had not been available on the market.
Kossamu said, last season, they produced about 21,000 metric tonnes (mt) of sugar, which was sold.
“Our capacity is just small. The sugar that we produced was sold and is now finished. It has been available throughout, only that we do not have capacity to produce more sugar that can be sold during off season,” he said.
He added that it was for this reason that they have been talking about developing about 4,000 hectares of land, which is idle at their base in Salima District, for improved output.
Last season, the company projected to produce about 25,000mt of sugar but managed to produce 21,000mt.
Meanwhile, Illovo Sugar Malawi Communications and Stakeholder Relations Manager Olive Kawelama has described the concerns as understandable.
“We understand the concerns raised by bakers regarding the difficulty in accessing white sugar. Last production season, we faced challenges in processing white sugar, which we disclosed to our customers,” Kawelama said.
She said the problem would be dealt with soon.
“We are resuming normal production operations this season to address the supply issue. However, production is contingent upon not encountering similar challenges, such as floods, as last season,” she said.
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