(Business in Cameroon) - In the framework of the HALCOMI, organized to curb illicit trades, Cameroonian customs agents recently seized a record 50 tons of contraband sugar, official sources reveal. Specifically, 1,068 bags of 50-kg sugar were seized in Kousseri (Far North) which shares a border bridge (the Ngueli bridge) with Ndjamena, capital of Chad. 

According to Jude Mofor, commanding officer of the third zone of HALCOMI 3 (which covers the three northern regions), the importer declared flour but when the load arrived at Kousseri, it was found out that the load was in fact sugar. “To import sugar into Cameroon, special authorizations are needed but the importer had none,” the officer explained. 

Sugar importation was forbidden, until further notice, by the Cameroonian government in 2014 to protect the local industry. It was notified in a letter dated August 21, 2014, sent by Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh, general secretary of the Presidency of the Republic, to the then Prime Minister Philémon Yang.

However, due to the main local sugar producer’s inability to meet the local demand, special authorizations were usually granted to importers, including the market leader Société sucrière du Cameroun (Sosucam), to avoid shortages. Nevertheless, SOSUCAM’s repeated complaints (the company usually threatened to stop operations and lay off staff due to poor sales), because of the imports and smuggling, forced the government to officially suspend the issuance of import authorizations (in 2018).  

BRM