MEMBER countries of the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) need to increase investment in local sugar production as a strategy to guarantee food security in the region.

Zanzibar President Dr Hussein Ali Mwinyi issued this appeal here yesterday when opening the SADC Sugar Investment Forum, involving a wide range of regional stakeholders.

The call comes at a time that the government is amending the Sugar Industry Act, after directing that the National Food Reserve Agency (NFRA) take up exclusive mandate to import, store and distribute ‘gap sugar’ for domestic consumption.

The intention is to relieve sugar consumers of price hikes tied to scarcity, whereby the sweetener is sold at exorbitant prices, with the Zanzibar leader asserting that the sugar sector is a priority in the country’s agriculture outlook as a whole.

Sugar industries are a strategic sphere of economic development, he said, emphasizing that local sugar production saves money which could have been used for imports, thus the saving is directed to other developmental activities.

In pursuit of this goal the government has put in place various initiatives to attract investments in the sugar sector, leading to expansion of industries in the sector, he stated.

Other SADC countries need to use opportunities already in place plus improved conditions for doing business to increase such investments, he said.

Removing barriers to investment in the sugar sector in the SADC region will expand markets within SADC and create opportunities in the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and the global market, he stated.

Policy on the sugar sector in the SADC region and the continent as a whole is being geared to address challenges facing the sector, including unfair international competition in selling the products.

This is caused by the issuance of subsidies which differentiates the cost of production among producers, he added.