Sugar imports flooding the local market this past January alone exceeded the total number of imports over three consecutive years combined, as the government scrambles to rein in cheap imports displacing domestic industries and eroding the country’s manufacturing capabilities.
According to data from the South African Revenue Service (Sars) — tracked by SA Canegrowers — January 2026 saw 24,600 tonnes of deep-sea sugar imports entering South Africa from countries such as Brazil, India and Thailand.
This single month’s imports exceeded the total imports recorded for entire previous years in 2020, 2021 and 2022.
Muhammad Kadwa, SA Canegrowers’ agri-economist and industry affairs manager, said the Sars data shows a “drastic increase in the amount of sugar imported into South Africa in 2025 and at the beginning of 2026″.
“The 2025 rise is ascribed to insufficient import tariff protection, compounded by a stronger rand/dollar exchange rate.”
“As per legislation, SASA [SA Sugar Association] also tracks data regarding the domestic sales of locally produced sugar, and this past financial year has seen the lowest sales since at least 2020, with almost 150,000 tonnes of lower sugar sales in 2025/26 than in 2024/25,” Kadwa explained.
On the back of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s state visit to Brazil last week, the association has urged that the president discuss this matter with President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and insist that sugar imports to South Africa from Brazil be stopped immediately, as the country is self-sufficient in sugar production.
Bilateral trade between South Africa and Brazil reached R32.5bn in 2025, with South African exports amounting to R5.2bn and imports from Brazil totalling approximately R27.3bn, the Presidency said last week before Ramaphosa’s trip.
South Africa’s top exports to Brazil are chemicals, mineral products, machinery, iron and steel, and vehicles. Brazilian exports to South Africa include mineral products, live animals, machinery, vegetables, and iron and steel products.
Imports of sugar accelerated sharply in 2025, with almost 200,000 tonnes of imported refined sugar entering the country over the course of 2025 due to a combination of a low global sugar price, stronger rand/dollar exchange rate and weak South African import tariff protections.
Early data from 2026 indicates imports are still rising and adjustments to the import tariff have had no effect, further undermining the stability of the local industry.
The association maintains sugar is being imported to South Africa by agents who take advantage of a low global sugar price and weak local tariff protections, but who sell this sugar locally at similar prices to locally produced sugar.
It says profits go to the import agents and results in no savings to consumers in South Africa. This in turn means that jobs are being exported at the expense of the SA sugar industry.
“This surge of imported refined sugar is displacing locally grown and produced sugar from the South African market,” said Higgins Mdluli, chairman of SA Canegrowers.
The local sugar industry loses more than R7,000 per tonne of locally produced sugar that is displaced by imports. This is a combined knock of R1.5 billion on the industry over the 2025/26 season, a huge impact during a time when the local industry can least afford it.
“The South African sugar industry supports over a million livelihoods and is the lifeblood of entire rural economies in KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga. We need a tariff framework that effectively ensures the domestic industry can compete with unfairly subsidised imports. Ensuring a fair trading environment for locally produced sugar is critical if the industry is to remain viable and continue supporting growers, workers, and communities.”
SA Canegrowers continues to urge the International Trade Administration Commission of SA (Itac) to finalise the tariff review and to implement adequate protection for the industry.
Last week, the minister of trade, industry and competition, Parks Tau, engaged with the sugar industry, along with key stakeholders in his department, including Itac, which administers tariffs.
Itac will also be tasked with taking into account the displacement of domestic products by imports and the effect on domestic investment and employment.
South Africa’s steel, automobile and sugar industries are some of those industries battered by imports.
Some of the other proposals Tau has put on the table include Itac having an express consideration of public interest factors in investigations and a “clearer statutory framework governing reciprocal commitments by applicants and authority for the minister to suspend the imposition of duties where appropriate”.
The surge in imports is one of many crises facing the sugar industry, with the potential liquidation of the more-than-a-century-old Tongaat Hulett and the escalating oil price adding to concern about the long-term future of growers.
Urgent action is required to not only secure Tongaat Hulett’s future, but to address the tariff structure that has caused sugar imports to eat into the local industry. Tongaat Hulett operates three mills and is South Africa’s only stand-alone sugar refinery, with white sugar being required by food and drink manufacturers due to its flavour profile; exactly the type of foreign sugar that is flooding the local market.
“Resolving the Tongaat Hulett crisis is essential for the stability of the industry, and we remain hopeful that a workable solution can be found,” Mdluli said. “However, even if Tongaat Hulett is rescued, it will operate in an environment where weak import tariffs undermine its core business, unless the tariff is urgently resolved.”
Business Day
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