BUA Foods Plc has published a disclosure distancing the company from every arrangement to create artificial scarcity of sugar in the country through the decision of two major sugar producers to suspend sales.
According to the notice, the company’s disclosure follows an array of calls from customers seeking information on the company’s decision regarding the suspension of sales of sugar, like its market competitors, Dangote Sugar and Flour Mills.
The notice read, “We have been inundated with calls from our customers that Dangote Sugar and Flour Mills have both suspended sales of Sugar, seeking to know if BUA will follow suit. We would like to reassure our customers that BUA is not joining the suspension of sales of sugar”.
It further explained that while the move by Flourmills Plc was as a result of the government’s decision to decline their 2022 raw sugar allocation, the reason for the move by Dangote Sugar was unknown.
However, the company has stated clearly that it has no intention to partake in the suspension of sugar sales nor increase prices between now and Ramadan (a peak demand period for sugar) as others have done.
The company said, “In our opinion, this stoppage may be intended to create scarcity, force the prices to artificially go up, profiteer even more, and blackmail the government to review the denial of allocation to Flour Mills due to compliance issues.”
BUA Foods Plc expressed the belief “that the government should not be blackmailed into rescinding a compliance-based decision and the process should be allowed to follow its due and proper course.”
Emphasizing on the company’s capacity, the notice said BUA Foods has enough between its Lagos and Port Harcourt sugar refineries, which adds up to 1.5 million metric tonnes to meet about 90% capacity of local demand in the country, while promising to stop all sugar exports so as to effectively meet local demand.
In addition to this, the Port Harcourt operation “is always ready to supplement sugar supply if there is scarcity, as we have done in the past in similar situations in 2020and 2021”, it said.
While advising customers against panic-buying, it warned dealers against withholding stock and continuing to sell at the same price, since there is enough to sustain the market until after Ramadan which begins in six weeks.
Conclusively, the company warned that its customers desist from selling at rates higher than the market price or intentionally withholding the commodity to create scarcity, as any customer found guilty will be immediately delisted as a dealer.
