Local sugar industry gets boost against cheap imports
Trade and Industry Minister
Parks Tau has signed off on new regulations allowing retailers, manufacturers,
millers, and growers to negotiate together on buying mainly local sugar,
without breaking competition laws.
The move been welcomed by the sugar industry, which has been fighting against cheap, subsidised imports flooding South Africa.
Minister Tau first published the draft exemptions in May for public comment and finalised them yesterday.
The South African Canegrowers Association representing 24,000 small-scale growers and 1,200 large-scale growers wrote to the Minister earlier this month urging him to fast-track the process.
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Chair Higgins Mdluli says the five-year exemption will allow industry-wide talks without fear of breaching competition laws..
"Buying local will sustain the 1,200 large scale and 24,000 small scale sugarcane growers from the provinces of Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal. The five-year exemption enables industry-wide talks to boost local sugar use and explore divers diversifying into sustainable aviation for wealth."
SA Canegrowers is now calling on food and beverage manufacturers and retailers to commit to buying local to protect the million livelihoods linked to the industry.
It has also urged government to negotiate a trade deal with the US that would include a tariff exemption or a return to the previous quota system.
The association says the US
does not produce enough of its own cane sugar and has to import to meet demand.
Until earlier this year, the US controlled imports through a quota system,
meaning South African sugar did not hurt US growers.
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