Mozambique: Illegal sugar imports harm national industry

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Mozambique: Illegal sugar imports harm national industry

4:04 CAT | 16 Jul 2024

FILE - For illustration purposes only. [File photo: Rádio Moçambique]

The illegal importing of sugar into Mozambique is harming the national industry, leading to yearly reductions in production in successive agricultural campaigns.

The decline could impact the contribution of this sub-sector to gross domestic product and job creation, executive director of the Association of Sugar Producers in Mozambique (APAMO), Orlando da Conceição, told ‘Notícias’.

Da Conceição says that phenomena such as floods, tax charges and the introduction of value added tax on the product have harmed the industry in recent years, but that the sector’s main concern is smuggling.

“All of this is caused by several factors. We have the issue of climatic events that affect the profitability of production, the most glaring case is that of Maragra, but we also have the issue of the illegal import of sugar, which constitutes a violation of the government rule for a surcharge on sugar imports,” he explained.

Da Conceição argues that legal sugar imports, with the surcharge, would protect the national industry, but that, in practice, the opposite happens – witness the significant quantities of illegally imported sugar on the market.

“The country is losing twice. It is losing because the state is not capturing the revenue due to the illegal import of the product, but it is also losing because our industry is not contributing to GDP and job creation,” Da Conceição concludes.

Source: Notícias