SA Canegrowers has urged the government to urgently abolish the sugar tax, warning that a sharp increase in imported sugar is crowding out locally produced sugar and placing the South African sugar industry under severe threat.
The sugar sector supports more than one million livelihoods, directly and indirectly, in KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga. Its foundation lies in 27,000 small-scale and 1,100 large-scale sugarcane growers. However, over the past year the industry has faced unprecedented strain as rising input costs and volatile global markets take their toll. SA Canegrowers says the sugar tax has only intensified the pressure on an industry already in distress.
The organisation is calling on government, industry stakeholders and consumers to unite in safeguarding a sector that is central to many rural economies.
According to SA Canegrowers chairperson Higgins Mdluli, imported sugar is frequently subsidised in exporting countries, allowing it to enter South Africa at artificially low prices. “The main beneficiaries are the import agents, who can earn high short-term profits by selling the sugar at local market prices,” he said.
An analysis of South African Revenue Service (SARS) data by SA Canegrowers shows that 153,344 tonnes of heavily subsidised sugar were imported between January and September 2025. This compares with just 20,924 tonnes over the same period in 2020. The previous peak was recorded in 2024, when imports reached 55,213 tonnes during the same timeframe.
Globally, the sugar market remains characterised by persistent oversupply and distorted trade conditions. Major exporting countries are able to offload surplus sugar at artificially low prices due to subsidies, favourable currency movements and weak growth in global demand.
“In this context, protecting South Africa’s domestic market is essential,” Mdluli said. “Without effective safeguards, local growers are forced to compete with dumped imports while also contending with policies that suppress domestic demand. Allowing imported sugar to replace local production under these conditions undermines food security, weakens rural economies and puts a strategic agricultural sector at long-term risk.”
South Africa’s sugarcane growers produce more than enough sugar to meet domestic needs, meaning imports directly displace local products on retail shelves and in food and beverage manufacturing.
SA Canegrowers has also raised ongoing concerns about the sugar tax, which it says unfairly penalises local beverage producers that use sugar. While supporting initiatives to address public health concerns, the organisation argues there is no evidence that the tax has achieved meaningful health benefits. Instead, it says the measure has caused significant economic harm across the value chain, including growers, millers and workers. When the tax was introduced in 2018, the industry lost more than 16,000 jobs in its first year.
“The sugar tax is an untested policy experiment with serious consequences for rural employment and investment,” Mdluli said. “Future decisions should be based on a balanced assessment of health data and calorie intake among South Africans, alongside the impact on the economy and the sustainability of local food production.”
SA Canegrowers is calling on government to act decisively to ensure fair trade conditions, including the proper enforcement of existing import protection measures, and to engage constructively with the industry on policies affecting its long-term viability. It says a key first step would be for Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana to scrap the sugar tax.
Consumers are also encouraged to support locally produced sugar and to recognise the broader social and economic importance of the industry.
“Saving the sugar industry is not only about growers,” SA Canegrowers said. “It is about communities, jobs and South Africa’s capacity to produce its own food. By acting together now, we can protect a strategic sector and secure a sustainable future for generations to come.”
