Moneyweb reports that at the annual general meeting of SA Canegrowers this week it was emphasised that the precarious financial distress of the Tongaat Hulett and Gledhow sugar mills underscored how the Health Promotion Levy (sugar tax) was undermining the sustainability of the industry, as well as the million of jobs and rural livelihoods it supported.

Newly elected SA Canegrowers chair Higgins Mdluli said that with the sugar tax scheduled to rise next year, the organisation would once again urge the government to support the industry to protect the jobs in the industry. In a statement, the association noted that the sugar tax was intended to be reviewed under phase one of the Sugarcane Value Chain Masterplan; however, this promise has not been fulfilled, and no meaningful engagement had to date occurred with the industry. The sugar tax has depressed the market for locally produced sugar and has cost the industry over 16,000 jobs. Studies conducted by the Bureau for Food and Agricultural Policy indicate that the increase in the sugar tax would result in reduced land allocated to sugarcane cultivation and decreased deliveries of sugarcane to mills. The research highlighted that the most substantial job cuts would affect small-scale farmers. SA Canegrowers urged government to accelerate the value chain diversification project in the second phase of the Masterplan, by providing support for diversification into strategic aviation fuels, among other areas.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Terri-Ann Brouwers at Moneyweb

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