The smuggling comes amid an acute shortage of sugar in Zimbabwe.
According to a Manica provincial police command spokesman, the sugar was seized in areas of Sussundenga and Mossurize districts, near the border with Zimbabwe. It had been stored in huts, preparatory to distribution and sale.
The smuggling of sugar from Zimbabwe, made artificially cheap by the Zimbabwean government’s exchange rate policy, is a major threat to Mozambique’s own sugar producers.
Vast sums have been spent on rehabilitating the Mozambican sugar industry, particularly the mill at Marromeu on the south bank of the Zambezi, which had been thoroughly sabotaged by the apartheid-backed Renamo rebels in 1986.
This investment could all be wasted if the Mozambican producers are unable to sell on the domestic market because of unfair competition from contraband.
The official claimed that the smuggling of sugar, cigarettes and alcoholic drinks from Zimbabwe had been on the decline in recent months. He attributed this to joint Mozambican/Zimbabwean police patrols along the border.
Further south, police sources say smuggling is getting worse along the border with Zimbabwe. The smugglers were reportedly breaking through the border fence, and carrying quantities of sugar, meat, maize flour, potatoes and drinks, amongst other produce, for sale on the informal markets in Maputo.
Last week alone the Namaacha police caught 50 smugglers who had violated the border fence.