Sales of locally produced sugar are falling dramatically as a result of an unprecedented surge in heavily subsidised imported sugar, raising concern from South African growers that not enough is being done to protect local jobs in rural KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga.
Already sugar imports for 2025 are more than 400% higher than 2024 levels, and this has directly led to a drop of more than 100,000 tons of locally produced sugar being sold or being used by commercial end users.
This 13% year-on-year drop in sales threatens to decimate the industry, and more needs to be done to halt sugar imports. SA Canegrowers calls on consumers, retailers, and food and drinks manufacturers to commit to buying locally grown sugar, as well as the government to enact stronger trade measures to protect the local industry. Similarly, policies like the sugar tax that lack evidence and have destroyed jobs should be urgently reviewed and scrapped.
Even though the year is not yet over, there has been an unprecedented surge in deep-sea sugar imports in 2025. Between January and August 149,099 tons of sugar were imported from countries like Brazil, compared to 35,730 tons during the same period in in 2024.
This more than 400% surge is due to weak protection measures, which was partly addressed in August when South Africa’s import tariff was adjusted to reflect the realities of a distorted global sugar market. Yet even with the adjusted import tariff, heavily subsided sugar is still flooding into South Africa.
Countries like Brazil and India subsidise their sugar industry, and further subsidise exported sugar, resulting in exported sugar prices that do not reflect true production value. Opportunistic importers bring this sugar into South Africa and sell the sugar at prices similar to locally produced sugar, thereby pocketing huge profits at no benefit to consumers.
This leads to South African sugar being displaced, with foreign sugar taking up retail shelf space or being used by food and beverage producers. For every ton of foreign sugar sold in South Africa, the local industry loses R7600. Considering the drop in local sugar sales in excess of 100 000 tons, this loss equates to more than R760 million Rand to the local sugar industry.
SA Canegrowers represents the 24,000 small-scale and 1,200 large-scale sugarcane growers in South Africa. The livelihoods of these growers, and the families and communities they support, are under threat.
When buying sugar, consumers can look for phrases that should clearly indicate the sugar was grown or produced in South Africa. Sugar that is merely “packed” in South Africa, or indicate countries of origin other than South Africa are threatening the livelihoods of rural South Africans. Visit www.saveoursugar.org.za for more information on how to identify imported versus South African sugar.
ENDS
For media enquiries:
Gerhard Mulder
gerhard@resolvecommunications.co.za
083 305 9361