YAOUNDE, CAMEROON AFRICA. DECEMBER 2010 (news.cameroon-today.com)  -   SOSUCAM – The Government of Cameroon kicks off “Sugar Week” through which sugar will be sold directly to customers at reduced prices.

A drive form the government called “Sugar Week” was flagged off yesterday the 29th of November in Yaounde to sell sugar directly to consumers at a price of FCFA 675 per kilogramme.

The campaign which is scheduled to last off for a whole week aims at providing whole packets of cubed sugar at a price of FCFA 675 for every packet to consumers since yesterday. The campaign is the brain child of the Ministry of Trade in tandem with numerous wholesale vendors of the commodity as well as shops distributing the commodity.

Cameroon Sugar Cane

The campaign has been essentially launched to put a firm full stop to the tendency amongst both vendors and customers to speculate on the price fluctuations which had resulted in a lot of turbulence within the sugar market across many cities in the country.

Valentin Mbarga Bihina, Director of Internal Trade at the Ministry of Trade, stated that cube sugar is generally sold all over the country as packets of one kilogramme each and is mostly purchased by most households across the various cities from the markets. Government, he stated had in a move in the recent past validated the import of large amounts of sugar into the country to meet the increased levels of demand. However the imported sugar came as 50 kg bags of granulated sugar.

This resulted in rampant need for the increase in the supply of cubed sugar and to facilitate this the Sugar Company of Cameroon, SOSUCAM once again restarted production on November 5, 2010 after a long interval. The company currently manufactures over 700 metric tonnes per day and they hope to ramp it up to 11,000 metric tonnes within the span of a month. “During our last meeting, SOSUCAM disclosed that it already had 6,600 metric tonnes ready for the market,” said the Director of Internal Trade.

The series of activities that the company has undertaken presently essentially caters to consumers by means of showcasing in shops and marketing it through special kiosks at all major junctions and circles in and around Yaounde.

Brigitte Fondjo, the Regional Delegate of FOKOU Company, a partner in the operation, said her company had been selling successfully huge amounts of packets of the new “Dethom” sugar brand through its vast network of supermarkets while a mobile vehicle which has been all decked up with streamers and animation of sound as part of the promotion was being sent to all major neighborhoods such as Mokolo, Nkomkana, Carrefour Carrière and Madagascar for direct sales. “The Ministry of Trade divided the city into zones. We are in charge of these areas,” she said.

At the Yaounde Central Market, another business associate who played a key role in the “Sugar Week” campaign, SOCOPRAL is also marketing packets of the “Princesse Tatie” brand at FCFA 650 per packet of one kilogramme. “For the first day, we have a stock of 50 cartons each containing 25 packets,” said Colbert Chomnoue, the manager.

After a very mild and off beat kick off to the whole program which was started last Monday, the “Sugar Week” will be used to the maximum extent possible to restore the lost glory of cubed sugar.

These whole hearted attempts has also seen the full fledged support of the members of the press and media who have worked in tandem with Minister of Trade who had indicated in a press release that the local population will tend to benefit to the maximum extent possible with the available means.