The South African Canegrowers’ campaign to highlight the harm caused by rising sugar imports on rural livelihoods has sparked an encouraging national response.
According to the organisation, more than 70 000 South Africans have now pledged to use only locally produced sugar as part of the Save Our Sugar campaign.
The chairman of South African Canegrowers, Higgins Mdluli, said the groundswell of public support is heartening, and every single consumer’s commitment makes a difference. “But the threat persists. We are still tracking sugar imports at levels with no precedent in recent history.”
Foreign sugar floods SA market
The South African Canegrowers’ latest analysis of figures released by South African Revenue Services reveals that 153 344 tons of heavily subsidised imported sugar entered South Africa between January and September this year.
As a comparison, over the same period in 2020, South Africa imported just 20 924 tons, whilst the previous highest level of imports was in 2024 at 55 213 tons for the same period. South Africa’s sugarcane growers produce more than enough sugar to meet local demand, so imports are not required.
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“This year, two factors combined to create a perfect storm for an industry that supports over a million South African livelihoods. Major sugar-producing countries subsidise their local production, and at times also subsidise the export of excess sugar to the global market.
“This leads to heavily distorted prices on the global market. In addition, South African import tariff regulations were slow to respond to the low world sugar price this year, with late adjustments of existing tariffs to offset the low prices of imported sugar. This tariff delay meant that unprecedented amounts of foreign sugar flooded into South Africa,” Mdluli said.
Local sugar industry in crisis
The canegrowers said the sharp rise in imports poses a direct threat to the sustainability of South Africa’s sugar industry, the livelihoods it supports, and the economic stability of rural communities.
“The country’s 27 000 small-scale and 1 100 large-scale growers cannot endure an uneven playing field indefinitely. 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,” the organisation stated.
Already this year, the drop in sales of local sugar equates to losses of R684 million and counting for the industry. A continuation of this dire situation, along with the pressures from rising input costs and the sugar tax, may well result in many small- and large-scale farmers exiting the industry in the coming years.
“We are hopeful that as the campaign unfolds with the help of South Africans, Proudly South Africa and government, a crisis can be averted in the local sugar industry. If it is not, then hundreds of thousands of livelihoods are at risk, which have a negative impact on the country as a whole,” Mdluli said.
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