BUA Foods has accused Dangote of making moves to create sugar scarcity and increase the price of the product in the country.

BUA, however, debunked insinuations that it has suspended the sales of sugar in the country.

The company said it would not stop selling sugar following the suspension of the product’s sales by Dangote Sugar and Flour Mills.

The management of the company made this known in a release on Monday.

BUA, while reiterating that Flour Mills stopped the sales of sugar over compliant issues by the government, said the stoppage by Dangote may be intended to create scarcity, and blackmail government to review the denial of allocation to Flour Mills.

The company added that it has the capacity to meet 90% of the nation’s needs, noting its readiness to stop all sugar exports and channel to meet local demand.

BUA further warned against panic buying, adding that it would not be a party to any stoppage of sales or hike in the price of sugar.

The company stated: “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.

“Whilst the suspension of sales of Sugar by Flour Mills may be understandable because the 2022 raw sugar allocation has been declined by the government due to compliance issues, we do not understand why Dangote has joined. 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.

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“We believe that government should not be blackmailed into rescinding a compliance-based decision and the process should be allowed to follow its due and proper course in any event, we would like to reiterate that BUA does not intend to join this suspension of sugar sales nor increase prices between now and Ramadan (a peak demand period for Sugar) as the others have done.

“For further context and clarity, BUA has enough capacity between its Lagos Sugar Refinery and Port Harcourt Sugar Refinery with a combined capacity of 1.5million metric tonnes to meet 90% of the local demand in Nigeria. If need be. BUA is ready to stop all sugar exports and channel that to meet local demand. BUA has always made it clear that our Port Harcourt sugar operation is always ready to supplement sugar supply if there is scarcity, as we have done in the past in similar situations in 2020 and 2021. We, therefore, want to reassure our customers that there is nothing to fear as between our Lagos Sugar Refinery and the Port Harcourt Sugar Refinery, we have enough sugar to take care of local demand regardless of the actions of the other players.

“We enjoin our customers and dealers to ensure there is no panic-buying, and not to withhold stock as we have enough sugar to sustain the market between now and after Ramadan which starts in the next 6 weeks. BUA remains committed to ensuring the price of sugar is not increased during this holy period and we vail continue to sell at the same price. Our dealers are therefore enjoined to continue to pay the same price for sugar from us as they have always done.”

BUA warned that any of its distributors caught hoarding the sugar would be delisted, saying: “We also wish to advise that any customer of ours found selling sugar higher than the market price or withholding sugar to create scarcity, will be immediately delisted as our dealer.”

TheStar