The fear of impending sugar scarcity, competition taken too far or both has forced the trio of BUA Foods, Flour Mills Nigeria Plc and Dangote Sugar Refinery to knock horns in what some industry watchers have tagged the ‘bitter sugar story’.
BUA Foods Plc, which started the bitter sugar story, had on February 14 flew a kite in an advertorial published that Dangote Sugar Refinery Plc and Flour Mills of Nigeria Plc have conspired and suspended sugar sales across the country because the raw sugar allocation had been declined by the government.
In their different responses, Dangote Sugar and Flour Mills berated BUA Foods for accusing them of suspending the sales of sugar when no such action emanated from their stables.
BUA Foods had alleged that Dangote Sugar particularly halted the sales of the product which is daily on high demand for industrial and domestic needs in a bid to create scarcity and force prices to go up.
Unable to swallow the unpalatable story, Dangote Sugar, in a press release published on the Nigerian Exchange Limited, described the claim by BUA as false and that BUA was merely out to curry market favour through the backdoors.
Dangote Sugar had disclosed that “In compliance with the requirements of the Rulebook of the Nigerian Exchange Limited, DSR wishes to strongly refute the allegations and assertions in their entirety as these false allegations may mislead the market and may give an undue competitive edge to BUA.”
Apart from lodging its complaints against BUA’s action at the appropriate quarters, Dangote Sugar added that “We believe this behaviour exhibited by BUA is worrisome and appears to conflict with the anti-competition rules. Last year, just before the commencement of Ramadan (the Islamic holy month of fasting), BUA made similar false allegations against the company that it was engaged in ‘price-fixing’ and not honestly pursuing the Backward Integration Project.
“In response to this, we published a press release to refute the false allegations and made a formal complaint to the Anti-Competition Commission. Another formal complaint was made to the commission on February 14, 2022, and we await their actions to address the situation.”
Dangote Sugar said, without allowing the bitter sugar story to alter its sales plans, it had continued to supply sugar to meet the market’s demand across the country.
Flour Mills, in a statement, also said it had no outstanding compliance issues with the National Sugar Development Council, and added that this was confirmed by the council’s latest raw sugar allocation for 2022.
“On the contrary, we have been adjudged as the best performing Backward Integration Programme,” the company said.
It also noted that “The assertion by BUA Foods on the supposed suspension of sugar sales by FMN based on compliance issues is incorrect and indeed capable of creating a false impression in the market, which is contrary to the interest of consumers.”
However, to allay fears of the major market operators in the sugar sector of the economy, the Federal Government had refuted claims of imminent sugar scarcity in Nigeria and had also stressed that there was no reduction in the production of the commodity.
Not so comfortable with the bitter sugar story, the government sternly warned operators in the sector to desist from making unnecessary propaganda capable of distorting the progress being recorded in Nigeria’s sugar production industry.
Executive Secretary, National Sugar Development Council, Zacch Adedeji, in his reaction to this in Abuja at the public presentation of the approved 2022 presidential raw sugar quota allocations to representatives of refineries in the sector, warned operators to stop raising false alarm.
He said, “Only yesterday, the attention of the council was drawn to a publication in some sections of the media credited to BUA Foods on the suspension of sugar sales.
“Given the strategic importance of the sugar value chain to the Nigerian economy, the council wishes to state that there is no known stoppage in sugar production by any of the operators as a result of compliance issues or on the council’s mandate.”
