Consultants Hired to Help Restructure Ethiopian Sugar Industry, an Industrial Info Market Brief

Ethiopia's government has hired consultants to help reshape the country's sugar sector, which is seeking the withdrawal of a 33% excise tax that is levied on the domestic industry. Domestic producers say the tax jeopardizes the competitiveness of the sector. On the other hand, imported sugar seems to be competitive even with a 33% excise tax, 10% surtax, 5% import duty and 15% value-added tax, all of which place an 87% tax on imported sugar. The Ethiopian Sugar Corporation forecasts sugar production in 2019-20 to be 483,532 tons, along with 21.4 million liters of ethanol. Industrial Info is tracking 76 sugar industry plants with 364 functional management contacts, along with 126 related projects worth $2.06 billion in Africa.