(CNN) A spoof video circulating on Egyptian social media neatly illustrates the effect of the nation's ongoing sugar shortage.

A cluster of youths on a Cairo street corner trade packages of illicit white powder - that is revealed to be the sweet stuff.

Truth is barely stranger than fiction in this case. The government has seized 9,000 tons of sugar in raids across the country, as though it were contraband.

The crackdown on "hoarders" has extended from an unfortunate waiter to the leading food producer Edita , which lost 2,000 tons to the inspectors and promptly halted production.

"If the government has a problem, they should come and negotiate, but this way of seizing stocks and treating us as smugglers is shameful," Edita chairman Hani Berzi complained in a subsequent interview on Egyptian television.

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