Pandemic must not be allowed to erode groundbreaking work in sugar sector
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As SA starts to focus on recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic, it is critical that agricultural sectors are supported in their efforts to ensure food security and provide critical rural jobs during these unprecedented times.
Over the past year sugar industry stakeholders, the government and social partners have participated in an extensive engagement and consultation process to devise a sugar industry master plan to respond to the many threats facing the industry and put the sector back on the path to growth.
It is crucial that this groundbreaking work is not undone by the pandemic, particularly for the 18,770 emerging small-scale growers, most of whom are black, as well as the 1-million households whose livelihoods depend on the sugar industry.
The future of the industry has been in question in recent years due to a confluence of simultaneous challenges. Plunging world sugar prices, weak protection against cheap imports and a big drop in local demand for sugar due to the introduction of the sugar tax (also known as the health promotion levy) in 2018 have all taken their toll. The sugar tax has cost the industry R1.5bn, with 9,000 jobs being lost in the cane-growing sector alone.
SA Canegrowers has been a consistent and constructive participant in the development of phase one of the master plan, which will see the government, the sugar industry, manufacturers, retailers and labour unions focus on seven short-term action commitments over the next three years. These are increasing demand in the local market by committing manufacturers to prioritise locally grown and manufactured sugar in their product ranges; industry price restraint; improved import protection; SA Customs Union trade harmonisation; the development of a differential pricing system for small-scale growers and increasing transformation in all sectors of the industry; production diversification support; and the potential restructuring of the industry.
We welcome the fact that one of the main strategic objectives of the master plan is ensuring that the foundational role of small-scale growers in the sugar cane value chain is safeguarded and expanded and that the inclusion of this sector is guaranteed in a diversified sugar industry in the future. More than half of our 20,217 members are emerging small-scale black farmers, and we have continually prioritised the provision of programmes that focus on supporting and developing these growers.
In this regard R766m has been allocated to small-scale grower development projects since 2000 through the sugar industry’s ...
Over the past year sugar industry stakeholders, the government and social partners have participated in an extensive engagement and consultation process to devise a sugar industry master plan to respond to the many threats facing the industry and put the sector back on the path to growth.
It is crucial that this groundbreaking work is not undone by the pandemic, particularly for the 18,770 emerging small-scale growers, most of whom are black, as well as the 1-million households whose livelihoods depend on the sugar industry.
The future of the industry has been in question in recent years due to a confluence of simultaneous challenges. Plunging world sugar prices, weak protection against cheap imports and a big drop in local demand for sugar due to the introduction of the sugar tax (also known as the health promotion levy) in 2018 have all taken their toll. The sugar tax has cost the industry R1.5bn, with 9,000 jobs being lost in the cane-growing sector alone.
SA Canegrowers has been a consistent and constructive participant in the development of phase one of the master plan, which will see the government, the sugar industry, manufacturers, retailers and labour unions focus on seven short-term action commitments over the next three years. These are increasing demand in the local market by committing manufacturers to prioritise locally grown and manufactured sugar in their product ranges; industry price restraint; improved import protection; SA Customs Union trade harmonisation; the development of a differential pricing system for small-scale growers and increasing transformation in all sectors of the industry; production diversification support; and the potential restructuring of the industry.
We welcome the fact that one of the main strategic objectives of the master plan is ensuring that the foundational role of small-scale growers in the sugar cane value chain is safeguarded and expanded and that the inclusion of this sector is guaranteed in a diversified sugar industry in the future. More than half of our 20,217 members are emerging small-scale black farmers, and we have continually prioritised the provision of programmes that focus on supporting and developing these growers.
In this regard R766m has been allocated to small-scale grower development projects since 2000 through the sugar industry’s ...
