SA Canegrowers share bittersweet news to help save local market
SACU said a record level of sugar is expected to pour in from neighbouring countries, crippling the local market.
THIS week, the SA Canegrowers’ Association has launched its Home Sweet Home campaign, which encourages South Africans to buy local sugar products to help safeguard the local sugar. The association shared a statement detailing the campaign.
“In the past, weak trade protection has seen a major increase in cheap sugar imports flooding South Africa from deep-sea countries such as Brazil and the United Arab Emirates as well as the Southern African Customs Union (SACU). For every ton of imported sugar that floods our shores, our local South African industry loses R4000. These cheap, low quality imports have caused the local industry to lose just over R2.2 billion in the last year alone,” said the association.
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SA Canegrowers’ Association said a record level of sugar is expected to pour in from neighbouring countries this year with Eswatini expected to produce 715 000 tons of sugar.
“Conversely, our local industry has been forced to export domestic surplus onto a ‘dumped’ or over-supplied world market at a significant loss,” they added.
According to the association, this has put the future of the South African sugarcane industry under serious threat, including the futures of our 21 000 black small-scale growers, 65 000 farmworkers as well as the 270 000 indirect jobs and the one million livelihoods the industry supports.
The Home Sweet Home campaign will provide consumers with information on what to look out for when buying sugar, specifically the Proudly South Africa logo or a bag that says the sugar is produced in South Africa.
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The campaign kicked off with the launch of a billboard on the N3 highway in KwaZulu-Natal, a key sugarcane growing region.
“We call on all South Africans to buy local sugar; together, we can save the one million livelihoods that the local industry supports. Because there is no place like home, sweet home,” said the association.
As part of the campaign, SACU is calling retailers and wholesalers to procure 80 per cent of their sugar locally, rising to 95 per cent in three years.
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