Manufacturer urges FG to ban imported biscuits as market hits N70bn  

Subramanian Murugesan, managing director of Sona Biscuits, a subsidiary of Sona Group of Companies, has asked President Muhammadu Buhari-led federal government to place a total ban on importation of biscuits and relevant confectioneries into Nigeria, saying that local manufacturers have adequate capacity to meet the needs of the N70 billion local biscuits market.

 

Murugesan said existing and ongoing investments in the production of biscuits and other confectioneries by series of manufacturing industries operating in the country, including Sona Biscuits, could not only match biscuits’ demand in the country but could also meet export needs.

Speaking with BusinessDay at the weekend on the impact of the current economic situation on the biscuits manufacturing sector at the Sona Biscuits Plant in Sango-Otta, he explained that the unchecked influx of biscuits into the country “is affecting production and marketing of biscuits while also leading to huge capital flights to other countries.”

 

“Nigerian biscuit market is about N70 billion per annum and there are lots of potentials in Nigeria to improve. What the existing players like Sona Biscuits, Niger Biscuits, NASCO Foods and others are producing are massive and can as well as meet up with local demands, but the importation is massive too.

 

“You will see lots of importation too; lots of imported biscuits in the Nigerian market. The importation of biscuits should be completely banned by government. The federal government should rather create enabling environment for us to grow. No waivers should be given on biscuits imports;  government should ban the imports completely.

 

“Other challenges we also have are the issues of transportation and power. Cost of transportation is preventing us from moving our goods to every part of Nigeria. Lots of expenses are expended on transportation and power. For instance, we generate our own power through gas we get from Nigerian Gas Company, which is still expensive compared to the power from national grid,” he said.

 

The managing director added that 90 percent of raw materials used in producing biscuits was being sourced locally and was, therefore, increasing investment and production of biscuits by local industries, saying that the waivers given to biscuits and confectionery importers by the Federal Government was killing the local industries and affecting vibrancy of manufacturers.

 

While disclosing that the biscuits manufacturer – Sona Biscuits-, began production in 2013 with a capacity of 36,500 tons per annum and eight varieties of biscuits, he added that expansion project had started to increase biscuits production lines by 60 percent with the introduction of additional biscuit products before the end of the year.