Sugar News in English

Sugar imports crush SA growers as sales plunge 45,000 tonnes

Source Business Day

Posted on July 28, 2026

South Africa’s sugar industry has urged the government to urgently revise its import tariff mechanism after 2026 sugar imports nearly doubled year-on-year, threatening local growers. The sector says cheap imports are reducing domestic sales, hurting rural livelihoods and undermining industry sustainability.

The sugar industry has raised the alarm over a surge in imports threatening the survival of local producers, calling on trade, industry & competition minister Parks Tau to urgently finalise the update to the tariff mechanism so it reflects market realities.

The sector has long called for higher tariffs to protect local cane growers, who it says lose more than R7,500 per tonne of cheap imports.

The industry is at a crisis point, with data showing that sugar imports in the first five months of 2026 were nearly double that of the same period last year, displacing locally produced sugar from local shelves as food and beverage producers buy increasing quantities of imports, SA Canegrowers said in a statement on Monday.

The nonprofit organisation represents and supports commercial and small-scale sugarcane farmers across South Africa’s sugar-producing provinces, primarily KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga.

Citing data from the South African Revenue Service, it said 94,984 tonnes of sugar were imported between January and May compared with 55,213 tonnes over the same period in 2025.

In 2022, only 1,491 tonnes of sugar were imported between January and May, “showcasing how rapidly the current tariff regime has fallen out of step with global sugar market realities”.

“Every tonne of locally produced sugar displaced by an import is a direct hit to a grower’s income, a mill’s viability and a rural community’s stability. The scale of what we are seeing now is nothing short of a crisis,” SA Canegrowers chair Higgins Mdluli said.

“Every week of delay in adjusting the dollar-based reference price costs the industry hundreds of millions of rand in displaced sales. We are not asking for special treatment. We are asking for the existing tariff mechanism to be implemented correctly to reflect a level playing field.”

The department of trade, industry & competition had not responded to questions from Business Day by the time of publication.

In January the International Trade Administration Commission (Itac), which falls under the oversight of the department, said it had launched a formal review to evaluate appropriate tariff protections after receiving two competing applications regarding the dollar-based reference price (DBRP) through which it manages the country’s variable sugar import tariff.

Itac said the South African Sugar Association (Sasa) had applied for an increase in the current DBRP to $905 per tonne from $680, citing the need to protect the local sugar industry and ensure its sustainability.

Subsequently, the Beverage Association of South Africa applied for a reduction to $552-$650, saying the current duty has an adverse impact on beverage producers, bottlers and consumers.

Itac said the divergent applications prompted a need to determine the most appropriate course of action in alignment with Itac’s legislative and policy framework, including the strategic objectives outlined in the sugar industry value chain master plan, hence, the self-initiated review.

On Monday, Itac referred Business Day’s questions to the trade department.

Figures tracked by Sasa for the period April 1 to June 30 show local sales of 255,015 tonnes, a slump of more than 45,000 tonnes compared with 2025. Previously, local sales for the same period reached a high of 428,422 tonnes.

“In the space of a few seasons, nearly 175,000 tonnes of local sales have been lost for growers and millers,” SA Canegrowers said on Monday.

The local industry says imports flooding South Africa’s market originate predominantly from Brazil, India and Thailand, where growers benefit from state subsidies and integrated ethanol regimes that effectively allow surplus sugar to be offloaded onto global markets at prices below what it costs South African growers to produce sugar.

Under an industry agreement, sugar that is left unsold in the country must be exported.

“South African sugar sales in the already distorted global sugar market lead to further losses. This is further eroding the local industry’s ability to recoup value from crushed and milled sugarcane — contributing to a projected price per tonne that is more than 10% lower than last year at roughly R6,600 per tonne as of July this year,” SA Canegrowers said.

The nonprofit says the sugar industry supports more than 1-million livelihoods, most of them in rural KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga, where sugarcane farming is often the only source of stable income and economic activity for entire communities.

The industry found a measure of relief in June when financially embattled sector giant Tongaat Hulett narrowly escaped liquidation after its business rescue practitioners, the Industrial Development Corporation and Vision Group reached an agreement to keep it afloat, potentially safeguarding more than 250,000 jobs in its operations and value chain.