As President Cyril Ramaphosa prepares to deliver his State of the Nation Address on Thursday, 11 February 2021, the dire state of our nation’s economic health will be front of mind.
South Africa is still reeling from the loss of lives and jobs, and lost opportunities due to the COVID-19 pandemic. For South African sugar cane growers, the existing threats to the industry include cheap sugar imports and the Health Promotion Levy.
The South African Canegrowers Association NPC (SA Canegrowers) has written to President Ramaphosa as well as Ministers Patel and Didiza to offer support and assistance to government in order to fast-track action on its commitments under the Sugar Industry Masterplan.
The Masterplan was signed in November 2020 and has been designed to draw together all stakeholders throughout the value chain, including Government, to revive the hard-hit sugar industry.
One of the most serious threats that faced the local sugar industry in the past was weak trade protection. In past years, an influx of cheap sugar imports has caused losses of over R2.2 billion. This breaks down to a loss of R4,000 to the local sugar industry for every ton of cheap imported sugar that floods our shores.
SA Canegrowers is implementing its promises under the Masterplan and launched its Home Sweet Home campaign in December 2020. It is directly aligned to Action Commitment One of the Masterplan - “Restoring the local market and offtake commitments”. Under this commitment, the aim is to restore an initial 150,000 tons of sugar demand to the local sugar industry in the first two years, with the goal of increasing this to 300,000 tons in year three.
Other undertakings under Action Commitment One include retailers and wholesalers procuring 80% of their sugar locally, with this amount rising to 95% in the third year, and Government promoting the use of local sugar by all its departments and state-owned entities.
Government and other stakeholders in the sugar industry have no time to lose in bringing the Masterplan’s commitments to fruition.
The sugar industry accounts for a significant portion of employment in the agricultural sector. The industry has 22,949 growers –of which 21,581 are small-scale growers – who directly employ more than 65,000 workers and create 270,000 indirect jobs across the country. Many thousands of these critical jobs are in rural areas of Kwa-Zulu Natal and Mpumalanga, where sugar cane growing forms the backbone of the local economies. Cumulatively, 1 million livelihoods depend on the sugar industry and now depend on the successful implementation of the Masterplan.
SA Canegrowers remains committed to working with all stakeholders to ensure a thriving industry for the benefit of all South Africans. With support from the Presidency, determined action from Ministers and Government, and a focus on the objectives and action commitments from all signatories to the Masterplan, we are confident that we can restore the local sugar industry.
The futures of one million livelihoods depend on it.
