Black, small-scale sugarcane farmers want protective tariffs as they struggle to survive
Parliament hears that cheap sugar produced outside SA is flooding the local market — and undertakes to deal with the matter urgently
Small-scale sugarcane grower Bongiwe Mcineka is feeling the pinch and struggling to survive because sugar imports are threatening to suffocate SA’s sugar industry.Sugar produced outside SA has been flooding the local market leaving black, small-scale sugarcane farmers, and rural communites, in dire straits.Earlier in June, Trix Trikam, executive director of the South African Sugar Association (Sasa), said: "Sugar in the world market is sold well below cost of production. On this basis, the South African industry does need an effective tariff to protect it against imports from the distorted world market."Mcineka, a mother of seven children‚ who has been a sugarcane farmer since 1992 in the Glendale Valley on KwaZulu-Natal’s north coast‚ is now battling to educate her children. "We used to get a lot of money but now we are getting nothing. We can’t even take our children to school. Job opportunities have been lost because you can’t hire someone if you can’t pay them." Her sentiments w...
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