Record sugar imports by South Africa threaten local growers who employ as many as 1 million people, prompting the industry’s lobby to ask consumers to only buy home-grown sweeteners.
About 153 344 tons of “heavily subsidised” sugar entered the country between January and September, almost triple the record set in the same period a year earlier, SA Canegrowers said in a statement on Thursday, citing tax-agency figures.
Sugar prices have plunged about 60% from this century’s record reached in February 2009. South African growers “produce more than enough sugar to meet local demand, so imports are not required,” it said.
The drop in sales translated into losses of R684 million ($40 million) “and counting” for the industry, the body said, with the fate of the country’s 27 000 small-scale and 1 100 large-scale farmers hanging in the balance.
“Growers cannot endure an uneven playing field indefinitely,” SA Canegrowers said. “Failure to act will lead to job losses, farm closures, and a weakening of rural economies that have underpinned Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal for generations,” it said, referring to the provinces that are the biggest producers.
The association has started a campaign called Save Our Sugar to promote exclusive usage of locally grown products, with more than 70,000 South Africans taking a pledge to do so.
“If it is not, then hundreds of thousands of livelihoods are at risk which have a negative impact on the country as a whole,” said SA Canegrowers Chairman Higgins Mdluli.
