March 11, 2010 -- Despite the latest attempts to regulate sugar distribution, there is still a shortage of the product in Addis Ababa, reports Capital.

The government forced auction winners to distribute door to door to selected shops in an attempt to prevent hording. But small shop owners said that in the last week they were not able to get sugar from the door to door distributors, or from Merkato, which is a centre for sugar dealers that participated in the auction, according to Capital.

The two governmental offices have assigned two dealers for each of the 10 sub cities, although some sub cities have additional distributers due to their large areas and heavy market activity.

Addis Ababa has faced shortage of sugar from time to time. The shortages have led to the price of sugar increasing over the limit set by the agency over the last few years. The problem worsened after the agency suspended sugar imports due to the high price in world markets. 

The state-owned sugar factories Wonji Shoa, Metehara and Fincha are producing 2.8 million quintals of sugar per annum, while the demand has reached 4.6 million quintals per year. The government plans to improve the situation by increasing production at these three factories, as well as constructing another sugar factory at Tendaho in Afar regional state, reports Capital.

Source: Capital