State of the Nation: SA Canegrowers Association welcomes President’s call to buy local sugar
12 February 2021
The South African Canegrowers Association NPC (SA Canegrowers) welcomes the call by President Cyril Ramaphosa in last night’s State of the Nation Address to buy local sugar. If all South Africans commit to buying the quality local sugar that our nation’s land and cane growers produce, the one million livelihoods that depend on the industry will be safeguarded.
SA Canegrowers launched its buy local campaign, Home Sweet Home, in December 2020. Home Sweet Home is intended to highlight the importance of buying local sugar, and the devastating impact that cheap foreign imports has had on the jobs and livelihoods supported by the local sugar industry.
The industry’s 22,949 growers, of which 21,581 are small-scale growers, directly employ more than 65,000 workers. They also create 270,000 indirect jobs across the country, supporting a total of one million livelihoods.
We can announce today that our Home Sweet Home campaign has been well received by South African consumers. Our preliminary findings show that sales of local sugar have increased by 12% year on year. We are hopeful that the President’s call will embed these early signs of shifted behaviour by committed South Africans.