DR Congo’s Minister of Foreign Trade Julien Paluku Kahongya met on May 4, 2026, with executives from Complast RDC, a mattress and foam manufacturer. According to the ministry, the company is seeking temporary restrictions on mattress imports in the greater Katanga region.

Complast says its request is based on production capacity. The company says it can produce up to 5,000 mattresses per day at its Lubumbashi plants, more than local demand across Haut-Katanga, Lualaba and Tanganyika provinces, which its director general, Vishal Hemnani, estimates at fewer than 4,000 units per day.

The company says the plants are operating below capacity. Quoted by Journal des Nations, Ramji Mazahor, Complast’s legal and public affairs coordinator, said the company currently produces between 1,500 and 2,000 units per day. He attributed the gap to what Complast describes as unfair competition from imported mattresses.

Complast argues that temporary restrictions would raise factory utilization and support local employment in the mattress and foam production sector.

Following the meeting, the Ministry of Foreign Trade announced the creation of a commission to collect additional data for the minister. The data will help determine whether temporary import restrictions on mattresses are justified in that part of the country.

According to its website, Complast has operated in the Democratic Republic of Congo since 1967. Besides Lubumbashi, the company says it has a presence in Kinshasa, Mbuji-Mayi, Mbandaka, Kikwit, Boma and Matadi. It also reports more than 35 distribution points in Kinshasa and 50 across the country.

Timothée Manoke