South African (SA) sugar growers have warned that rural jobs and livelihoods are at risk if the International Trade Administration Commission of SA (ITAC) lowers tariffs on imported sugar.
SA Canegrowers said local producers have already suffered significant losses as cheap, heavily subsidised imports flood the market, with R733 million ($44.7 million) in revenue lost in 2025 alone. The association cautioned that further tariff reductions could severely damage domestic sugar production and the economies of KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga province, where thousands of small-scale and large-scale growers operate.
“Should domestic sugar production collapse, SA faces widespread job losses and heightened poverty,” SA Canegrowers said. More than a million livelihoods are linked to the sugar industry.
The growers highlighted flaws in the Dollar-Based Reference Price (DBRP), the mechanism used to set import tariffs. Between January and November 2025, 177 408 tons of duty-paid sugar entered SA, a sharp rise from fewer than 3 000 tons in the same period in 2022.
SA Canegrowers said it will participate fully in ITAC’s review, but warned that adopting a lower DBRP, as proposed by BevSA, may benefit importers in the short term while threatening the long-term survival of the local industry.
“ITAC must take full account of the risks to rural jobs and livelihoods in a country that cannot afford to push more people into poverty,” the association added.
–ChannelAfrica–
