Agriculture minister John Steenhuisen says SA’s sugar industry can be diversified “if it is willing” to grow different crops for which there is a high global demand.
“There’s a global demand for corn, wheat … and sorghum. What we need an agreement with the energy department and buy in from stakeholders. If we get that, it will solve the sugar tax concern in SA and help [mass produce] crops into those used for ethanol production,” Steenhuisen said in an interview with Business Day to mark his 100 days in office.
“We could go some way to replacing our reliance on crude oil, through bio fuels. Sorghum is also a bio fuel and we have local knowledge on how to produce it here in SA,” Steenhuisen added.
SA is under pressure to produce more renewable energy to sustain the suspension of load-shedding, while health advocacy groups are spearheading campaigns for increased taxes on sugary drinks, saying the Treasury could also do more to help curb consumption of these products.
This tax has been the subject of intense lobbying, with proponents arguing they help cut consumption of harmful products and reduce the burden on the health system, while critics maintain they harm the economy.
SA Canegrowers, which represents 24,000 small-scale growers and 1,200 commercial farms, is opposed to the sugar tax, citing possible job losses in the sector.
While contestation around the future of the sugar industry continues, Steenhuisen also has other big plans to better exploit SA’s good standing in Brics, comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China, SA, Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia and the United Arab Emirates.
“Europe is our largest market but looking at existing trade agreements, we need to find ways to deepen and widen them. We need to expand our citrus and beef export potential, and why is China buying so much of its wine from Australia and France? We should be exporting apples to India and in the middle east there is huge demand for SA’s agricultural products — lamb alone is massive,” Steenhuisen said.
Steenhuisen said further concrete details on how the ANC and DA would work together in the national interest would be announced early next year after the medium-term development plan (MTDP) was finalised. He acknowledged that disputes around localisation and National Health Insurance (NHI) were the biggest stumbling blocks to finalising a programme of action.
“We need to get the MTDP absolutely right, with maximum consensus on things like localisation. We need evidence-based policy decisions on NHI and localisation. Simply expecting us to rubber stamp existing policies will not get things moving. If you do what you have always done, you cannot expect different results,” Steenhuisen said.
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