Trix Trikam has become synonymous with Mzansi’s sugar industry. The executive director of the South African Sugar Association (SASA) has dedicated over 40 years of his life to advancing the cause of sugarcane growers.
He has been at the helm of SASA since 1998 after also serving the organisation in other roles, including finance director and head of the industry affairs division. With a BCom degree in accounting, Trikam has an in-depth understanding of the many challenges faced by the sugar industry.
“We lost 250 000 tonnes of sales to the beverage sector,” he told Food For Mzansi’s Sinesipho Tom during a recent sugar industry tour. That equates to R1,2 billion in revenue per annum.
To make matters worse, recent looting and civil unrest in parts of KwaZulu-Natal has been a further blow to the industry.
How would you describe SASA to people who’ve never heard of it?
SASA is a body set up through the Sugar Act of 1978 to represent the country’s sugar industry, comprising both the sugarcane growing and milling sectors. We are privately funded and we also have legislation [in place] that comes from the sugar industry agreement. This deals with the partnership between millers and their growers.
Growers grow their cane, and the millers mill the cane to make sugar. The proceeds that are received from sugar and molasses are shared with the growers. So, the grower does not get a fixed price for his cane. He shares whatever proceeds he got from the sale of sugar or molasses due to the regulations surrounding the sugar industry.
The sugar industry has these regulations because, you can understand, for growers to negotiate with their miller is very difficult. There are many growers and there is one miller. So, there is a bit of dominance in that and, therefore, there are these regulations that take away the negotiation that may be required. So, calculations are made independently by SASA.
How many growers and millers are there in the sugar industry and how has this changed in the last decade?
There are 20 631 small-scale growers, 1 099 commercial growers (inclusive of land-reform growers), 12 mills in rural areas and 46 millers-cum-planters. There used to be around 50 000 small-scale growers registered, but over the past 20 years that number has been reducing for various reasons.
The main reason is viability but what is not shown is that, for more than the last 10 years, there has also been some amalgamation where small-cane growers have formed cooperatives. If you break up the cooperatives, you’re probably looking at another 8 000 to 9 000 growers. Large-scale growers are quite stable.
What is the contribution of Mzansi’s sugar industry to the economy?
South Africa’s sugar industry contributes 65 000 direct jobs. There are 1 million people in rural areas that are dependent on it. Indirect employment in the industry constitutes 270 000 people. There are 12 mills with a turnover of R18 billion and sugar production stands at 2.1 million tonnes. Annual cane production equates to 19.8 million tonnes and 362 000 hectares. So, this is sort of the standard, but it obviously fluctuates year on year.
What are the biggest challenges facing the industry?
There are three major challenges facing the sugar industry. One is the sugar tax introduced in 2018. We lost 250 000 tonnes of sales to the beverage sector. That’s about R1.2 billion in revenue per annum. The other challenges are sugar imports from Eswatini and the import tariff. We have a dollar-based reference price which is sitting at 680 USD.
What was the true cost of the recent civil unrest to the sugar industry?
We were fortunate not to be affected like other industries, but 500 000 tonnes of cane were burnt by arsonists, of which 121 614 tonnes cannot be processed. Fifty-three towns in the sugar belt were impacted. Ten mills ceased production for a week. Over R100 million was lost in revenue in a week, warehouses were looted and 2 580 tonnes of sugar stolen.
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