Flour Mills of Nigeria Plc and Dangote Sugar Refinery Plc have have responded to claims made by BUA Foods Plc accusing them of suspending the sale of sugar.
BUA Foods had in an advertorial published on Monday said Flour Mills suspended sugar sales because the 2022 raw sugar allocation had been declined by the government.
It also accused Dangote Sugar of halting sales of the product in a bid to create scarcity and force prices to go up.
But in a press release published on the Nigerian Exchange Limited on Thursday, Dangote Sugar described the claim by BUA as false.
It said, “In compliance with the requirements of the Rulebook of the Nigerian Exchange Limited, DSR wishes to strongly refute the allegations and assertions in their entirety as these false allegations may mislead the market and may give an undue competitive edge to BUA.”
“We believe this behaviour exhibited by BUA is worrisome and appears to conflict with the anti-competition rules. Last year, just before the commencement of Ramadan (the Islamic holy month of fasting), BUA made similar false allegations against the company that it was engaged in ‘price-fixing’ and not honestly pursuing the Backward Integration Project.
“In response to this, we published a press release to refute the false allegations and made a formal complaint to the Anti-Competition Commission. Another formal complaint was made to the commission on February 14, 2022, and we await their actions to address the situation.”
Dangote Sugar said in line with its plan, it had continued to supply sugar to meet the market’s demand.
Flour Mills said in a statement that said it had no outstanding compliance issues with the National Sugar Development Council, adding that this was confirmed by the council’s latest raw sugar allocation for 2022.
“On the contrary, we have been adjudged as the best performing Backward Integration Program,” the company said, adding, “The assertion by BUA Foods on the supposed suspension of sugar sales by FMN based on compliance issues is incorrect and indeed capable of creating a false impression in the market, which is contrary to the interest of consumers.”
