Cameroon Govt takes Measures to Curb Sugar Prices over Ramadan -Official

(The Wall Street Journal) – Cameroon’s ministry of trade has dispatched teams nationwide to ensure stable prices for sugar, cooking oil, and other goods that are highly sought after during the ongoing 40-day fasting period of Ramadan, a top official in the ministry told Dow Jones Newswires Sunday.

“It’s true that prices have been stable, but we fear that artificial scarcity of these goods, especially sugar could be created by unscrupulous traders, hence spark price hikes,” said the head of price control at the ministry of trade, Ms. Judith Ossa Ntyam.

The government began tightening its control of prices for food and other basic commodities after sharp cost increases for sugar, gasoline, as well as rice and meat, sparked a nationwide uprising in 2008. At least 40 people were killed in clashes between protesters and security forces that year.

This year, the government has dispatched several delegations of price controllers to a number of areas, especially in the three northern Adamawa, North and Far-North Regions [provinces], which are home to a majority of the country’s Muslim population.

“There are also teams distributing sugar and other foodstuffs to be sold at the appropriate prices in various parts of the country. But we’ll confiscate any sugar or foodstuffs sold at exorbitant prices,” said Ms. Ossa Ntyam.

A kilogram of sugar sold during Ramadan of 2012 rose to at least 1,000 CFA francs ($1.99), well above the government-approved price of XAF600/kg.

More recently, the price paid for a kilogram of sugar has risen to XAF700-800 in some localities of the African nation, which has a yearly supply deficit of between 50,000-100,000 tons of sugar, according to government and industrial statistics.

Cameroon’s production by the state-run Sociate Sucriere du Cameroun (Sosucam) was 130,000 tons last year, data from the company.