Store owners hide inventory, consumers are in trouble

Since Senegal announced a reduction in the cost of living, several regions of the country, especially in Dakar, have experienced a shortage of sugar. In the small town of Niag, located in the Rofisc department, finding sugar has become a real ordeal. Shopkeepers with it are rare, and in the HLM district, a store only has a few bags of crystallized sugar worth 100 FCFA.

Consumers are desperate over the situation and are informing the government about the difficulties they are facing.

Mamadou Diop, a resident of Niag, expressed his frustration: “Since the price reduction was announced, finding sugar has become a nightmare for us. The children need it for breakfast, but we spend the whole day looking for it in vain,” he decried.

Mother Aïssatou Ndiaye shared her experience: “It’s incomprehensible. Before, I could buy sugar in almost every store in our neighborhood. Now, even for a small sachet, I have to run several kilometers to find it. The government must do something,” she lamented.

On the merchants’ side, the situation is equally worrying. The government-decided sugar price cut does not allow them to utilize the stocks they had acquired before the measure came into effect. To avoid losses, some prefer to keep their stocks in the shops.

Sheikh, a shopkeeper in Niag, explained: “We buy sugar at a certain price and now, with the price falling, we will be forced to sell it at a loss. This is not sustainable for us. We would rather keep our stocks and hope that things work out,” he stressed.

Another trader, Adama Sow, added: “This decision by the government, while it is supposed to help consumers, puts us in a delicate situation. We also need to survive and feed ourselves. What will we do if we sell at a loss?”, he asked himself.

The government is therefore facing double pressure: consumers demanding increased supply of sugar at affordable prices, while traders fear financial losses. There must be a balanced and lasting solution to this crisis without penalizing parts of the population.

Birame Kari Ndo