Load shedding set to the cost sugar industry millions
The South African Cane Growers Association says the industry stands to lose as much as R723 million this year due to ongoing load shedding.
It says the rolling blackouts will have a further negative impact on an industry that's already suffering from other burdens such as the sugar tax.
The association's Andrew Russell says they hope that there are no further aggressive levels of load shedding going forward.
"Load shedding affects 1 135 irrigated growers who employ more than 10 000 workers," says Russell.
He has revealed that an estimated 34% of South Africa’s sugarcane is produced in irrigated areas, including Komatipoort and Malelane in Mpumalanga, and Pongola in KwaZulu-Natal.
"We have reached out to government and Eskom. Some of the short-term measures we have asked for is that we consider decreasing and restricting load shedding to stage 4 in the irrigated canegrowing areas during this peak time when we're irrigating our crops."
