South Africa’s sugar industry faces import pressures

SA Canegrowers will participate constructively in the newly gazetted International Trade Administration Commission of South Africa (ITAC) sugar tariff review process, with the expectation that full and proper regard is given to the risk facing rural jobs and livelihoods. Were there to be a collapse in domestic sugar production as a result of heavily subsidized cheap sugar imports entering South Africa, the country risks job losses and increased poverty. SA Canegrowers Chief Executive Officer Dr Thomas Funke highlights the role of the sugar industry in the economy and in rural communities.