BUJUBUMBURA August 9th (ABP) – The Ministry of Trade, Transport, Industry and Tourism and that of the Interior, Community Development and Public Security, organized on Monday August 7, 2023, a meeting for the governors of all the provinces of Burundi and the representatives of the companies BRARUDI, SOSUMO and BUCECO in order to discuss the fair distribution of their products.
In her speech, the Minister in charge of trade, Mrs. Marie Chantal Nijimbere, indicated that the causes of the rise in the prices of sugar, cement and BRARUDI beverages are, in particular, the insufficiency of the currencies necessary to import raw materials. For this, Minister Nijimbere asked all Burundians to invest a lot in the field of agriculture to export harvest and obtain foreign currency.
During the exchanges, the two ministers, in turn, called on all the representatives of those companies, to collaborate with the governors of the provinces in order to be able to correctly apply the new measures taken by the government while communicating them to the people, for proper distribution of said products.
Concerning BRARUDI, the sales manager, Mr. Armand Mbonimpa, pointed out that this company must do everything possible so that all the provinces are served.
He, however, deplored that there are traders who speculate on prices.
He also indicated that BRARUDI favored retailers of its products while taking into account the cost of transport so that those traders could not increase prices under the pretext of transport costs.
For her part, the commercial director of the company BUCECO, Mrs. Melissa Inamahoro, specified that the rise in the price of cement was caused by the lack of raw materials coming from outside the country, the insufficiency of electricity and the lack of fuel. To the managers of the BUCECO company, the Minister of the Interior recommended that they do everything possible to distribute cement throughout the country, giving the example of Isare commune in Bujumbura province, which is almost not served.
As for the Director General of SOSUMO, Mrs. Fides Bigirimana, she pointed out that SOSUMO distributed sugar throughout the country while setting the price per kg at 3190 BIF for wholesalers, 3240 BIF for semi-wholesalers and 3300 BIF for retailers. She deplored that wholesalers or semi-wholesalers sell a Kg of sugar at 3300 BIF like retailers, which often causes prices to rise.
The Minister of the Interior, Community Development and Public Security, Martin Niteretse, recommended that the managers of that company do everything to find the 15 tons which were intended for the citizens of Mukaza commune but which have gone missing.
He further recommended that they draw up a list of all sugar traders throughout the country and distribute it according to the number of inhabitants by province. He took the opportunity to call on the processing factories that use the sugar to import it, stressing that the sugar produced by SOSUMO is intended only for the population.
Finally, he recommended removing on the list traders who do not collect sugar from SOSUMO’s stock and replacing them with others.