MORE PRESSURE FOR SUGAR EXPORT MARKET, BUT …

MBABANE – While the country has a concern about the tone of South Africa’s Sugar Master Plan, the Shoprite Group has rubbed salt into the wound.

According to South African media reports, the group said it would prioritise the sale of locally-produced sugar in its 1 189 Shoprite, Checkers and Usave supermarkets across South Africa.

Formed

The group said this formed part of a partnership with industry body SA Canegrowers Association’s ‘Home Sweet Home’ campaign, which aims to educate consumers about the ‘threats the local industry is facing when it comes to the influx of cheap sugar imports and to encourage them to buy locally-produced sugar in order to safeguard rural jobs’. In December 2020, industry stakeholders in South Africa signed the Sugar Master Plan, which included commitment from large users of sugar to procure at least 80 per cent of their sugar needs from local growers. The plan seeks to ease a crisis caused by a flood of imports from countries like Eswatini. South Africa is the leading market for Eswatini sugar exports and accounted for 53 per cent of the total exports in the 2019/20.

Contribute

Sugar production accounts for over half of Eswatini’s agricultural output and contributes about E6 billion to the country’s gross domestic product. The industry employs more than 20 000 workers. In the past month, it was reported that sugar and its products sold abroad were valued at E572.0 million, depicting a notable month-on-month drop of 18.8 per cent. The latest developments come at a time when the country  is currently expanding sugar production by adding more planting area of about 5 728 hectares under the LUSIP II.  LUSIP is an acronym for the Lower Usuthu Smallholder Irrigation Project.

Behind

Eswatini government, through Eswatini Water and Agricultural Development Enterprise (ESWADE), is behind the LUSIP II project. The goal of LUSIP II is to reduce poverty in the project area by transforming subsistence farmers into commercial farmers in the irrigated perimeters that produce cash crops (mainly sugar cane). However, it is not all doom and gloom and as Eswatini Sugar Association (ESA) Chief Executive Officer Dr Phil Mnisi recently said the company was working on opening up new markets in Africa and overseas.

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