South Sudan seizes expired commercial goods

By Ngor Arol Garang

June 4, 2010 (TURALEI) – Southern Sudanese authorities have on Friday seized expired commercial goods and issued strong statement warning against supply of fake and expired commodities to the semi autonomous region.

South Sudan is a landlocked region and depends entirely on commercial goods imported from the neighboring countries particularly Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia, and Congo in an addition to supplies from Northern Sudan. Most of these commodities are neither inspected nor certificated for any health hazard at most receiving markets in the south.

Complaints from local residents have always suggested sale and recycle of expired items mostly beverages and food commodities. Nyandeng Mawut Ajiing, a business woman running small retail shop in Turalei relayed her experience with counterfeit commodities to Sudan Tribune during an interview at her commercial stand.

“My experience of buying assorted expired items is the living example. I went to Uganda in 2009 with other business colleagues in order to go and buy at the whole sale variety of goods. In Kampala we all gathered and agreed to buy from one business man so that we can all benefit from discounts.”

“We bought all goods without any doubts but upon arrival here (Turalei) my costumers latter on started to complain that some of the goods I was selling to them were expired while others have different tasting. I did not agree until my own daughter in my presence opened a bottle of Coca Cola to drink.”

This Coca Cola immediately resulted to vomiting and abdominal cramps the whole day that I had to take her to the clinic where it was diagnosed as food poison. When we came back home and conducted thorough checks on most items, we discovered that almost all the items worth $30,000 (Thirty thousands) I bought were expired, but could not see it because they were again put in another new containers with different packaging giving different expiry dates than primary pack,” she said.

“On the secondary pack, everything is okay as opposed to primary packaging inside each container,” she explained.

In the regional capital of Juba at Konyonyo market, Deng Chok Bol equally complained of having been sold spices whose expiry date is long gone in February 2008. “My wife went to Konyonyo market and reportedly bought spices she did not check their expiry date for cooking.”

“These spices became problem and caused diarrhea to the children resulting into their admission for two days at Juba Teaching Hospital in March 2010,” he said adding he got other people admitted in the hospital with same food related complains.

“Relatives to some of the patients we got in the hospital complained the same. We got one victim admitted for food poison,” he said.

These rising concerns prompted combined team of southern police in collaboration with health authorities on Friday to seize suspected assortment of food commodities and other counterfeit products worth millions pounds at Konyonyo and new custom markets at Jebel Kunjur.

The seizure follows the unearthing of a scam in which some foreign traders are selling counterfeit food and electronic products to unsuspecting customers.

Deng Ayuel, a South Sudan Police Service officer who participated in the operation, told Sudan Tribune that the counterfeit products were confiscated from some traders at Konykonyo and Jebel Kunjur markets.

He said the traders, who were briefly arrested during a joint operation, have since been released on police bond, pending court appearance.

Garang Aguer Kuel in Juba also confirmed and stated it has been observed that most of good imported from the neighboring countries are faked. “One buys a computer today, tomorrow it refuses to open. I have observed that south Sudan has become a dumping region.”

“They do not put a sticker of their brand on the product, it is engraved, but you find that what is offloaded at the most markets actually has no stickers,” he said adding counterfeit products do not perform efficiently as intended by the users.

(ST