South Africa’s sugar industry, which supports over a million livelihoods and underpins the rural economies of KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga, is at risk of being undermined by a flood of artificially cheap, subsidised sugar imports. These imports are not just distorting the local market – they are jeopardising the survival of small-scale and large sugarcane growers and the thousands of families whose lives depend on them.

SA Canegrowers, which represents 1 200 commercial farmers and 24 000 small-scale growers, has raised the issue with the government, calling for action to raise the import tariff reference price and prevent further damage to an industry already under enormous strain.

It is important to note that cheap imported sugar does not translate to cheaper sugar for retail consumers. Imported sugar ends up on retail shelves at a similar price to locally grown sugar, with inflated profits going to importers of offshore sugar.

South Africa has seen a steady rise in sugar imports over the past year, despite the local sugar industry being able to fully supply the region’s domestic and commercial needs whilst leaving extra to export. In the 2024/25 season, close to 100 000 tons of duty-paid imports sugar entered South Africa, a steep rise from about 25 000 tons in the previous season.

The global sugar market is anything but free or fair. Most major sugar-producing countries protect their growers with extensive subsidies and support mechanisms - sometimes direct, other times hidden in complex support systems. These market distortions allow foreign producers to export sugar at prices far below the actual cost of production.

Brazil is the world’s largest sugar exporter and is able to produce sugar more cheaply than most other countries partly owing to the generous support from government. Brazil’s government further supports the dual-use for sugarcane – both to be produced into edible sugar and other products, and also to produce ethanol for their local fuel industry.  Brazilian sugarcane growers have historically received government support via low-interest loans, fuel blending mandates (for bio-ethanol), and other mechanisms that enable the country to produce sugarcane at scale, cheaply. 

Another major sugar producer is India, where the government has deployed direct subsidies, debt waivers and export subsidies. A number of other major sugar producing countries also deploy various forms of export and/or input subsidies. An export subsidy is a financial incentive provided by a government to domestic producers or exporters to encourage them to sell their goods abroad rather than domestically. Such subsidies help make a country's exports cheaper or more competitive in international markets by offering their product for sale at or below the cost of production, often at the expense of fair global trade.

This means that, without an appropriate import tariff, sugar enters South Africa at a price that is lower than the cost of producing that sugar in the country of origin. This undercuts local growers, who operate without the same level of government support.

As a result, South African sugarcane growers are losing an average of over R7 500 in income for every ton of imported sugar that displaces local product. Should the volume of sugar imports continue on its current trajectory, the industry is facing severe financial strain in a period that already sees growers battered by erratic weather, rising input costs, mill closures, and the sugar tax. By Higgins Mdluli, IOL