Industry organisation SA Canegrowers is urgently calling on Trade, Industry and Competition Minister Parks Tau to intervene and finalise the update to the sugar import tariff mechanism to reflect current local sugar market realities.
This call comes amid South Africa’s sugar industry reaching a decisive stage, with new data revealing that sugar imports in the first five months of this year nearly doubled what they were in the same period last year, displacing locally produced sugar from shelves while food and beverage producers buy increasing quantities of imported sugar.
SA Canegrowers notes that the International Trade Administration Commission of South Africa is assessing whether sugar tariffs are at the correct level, after an application was submitted by the sugar industry more than 18 months ago.
The organisation adds that the impact of sugar imports on local sales is concerning as figures tracked by industry body the South Africa Sugar Association for the period April 1 to June 30 show local sales of 255 015 t, thereby representing a collapse of more than 45 000 t compared to the same period in 2025.
Further, SA Canegrowers highlights that, before the tariff framework was eroded, local sales for the same period reached recent highs of 428 422 t, and that in the space of a few seasons, nearly 175 000 t of local sales have been lost for growers and millers.
