Béata Uwamaliza Habyarimana, Minister of Trade and Industry said that they carried out an inspection on three commodities namely sugar, cooking oil and soap in order to understand their price increases – indicating that soap price is partly attributed to the fact that making requires cooking oil ingredients.
The Minister was on Sunday, March 6, 2022, commenting on commodity price increases during a talk show on Isango Star TV.
She said that a 50-kilogramme sack of [imported] sugar which used to cost Rwf51,000, is costing about Rwf63,000, an increase of over Rwf23 percent.
A 20-litre pack of cooking oil that was Rwf40,000, now costs over Rwf48,600, representing over 21 percent increase.
For soap, she said that a carton (containing 12 bars of soap), increased from Rwf8,000 to Rwf9,300, an increase of 16 per cent.
Talking about sugar, she said that most of the sugar consumed in the country is imported from countries including Swaziland, Malawi and Zambia, while only about 10 percent is produced locally.
Meanwhile, Habyarimana said that the Government was looking for ways to help factories increase oil production through facilitating access to the needed raw materials.
She warned traders who seek to exploit Rwandan residents by even hiking the locally produced commodities.
