The Independent Uganda: You get the Truth we Pay the Price
YEAR IN REVIEW: May 2017
Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The year 2017 has been bitter for sugar consumers in Uganda. In a trend set in December 2016 when it hit Shs5000, the price of sugar for home consumption continued to climb and his Shs7000 per kilogram – a new record high.
This was attributed to shortages caused by prolonged drought, harvesting of immature sugarcane and increased export to Kenya and Rwanda.
The tension over prices kept the Minister of Trade, Industry and Cooperatives, Amelia Kyambadde, busy as she darted from meetings with manufacturers, to meetings with traders, and press briefings for journalists.
On May 13 she issued a directive that a kilogram of sugar should not be sold at a price exceeding Shs5000. But her plea on government enforcement agencies to restrain and arrest traders selling sugar above that price went unheeded.
Kyambadde switched to promising that government would import some sugar to fill the gap. But this too flopped as sugar millers insisted they have enough stock and heaped blame for high prices on wholesalers and retailers.
