Zimbabwe: Tongaat Huletts decries cheaper sugar imports' impact on local industry

Listed sugar processor, Tongaat Huletts says cheaper sugar imports are negatively affecting the country's local industry by depressing sales volumes amid concerns of exposing consumers to health hazards. Presenting the financial performance for the year 2023, Tongaat's chairman, Canaan Dube said the Statutory Instrument 98 implemented by the government last year whose six months tenure ended in November 2022 prompted a huge knock on local industry's viability. "Local market share was compromised as a total of seventeen (17) brands were imported into the country during the SI's tenure. The sugar industry estimated the total impact of these imports to have been 5% of the annual local sugar sales volume," he said. Dube underscored that world sugar markets are normally residual markets for excess sugar supply and are affected by support policies and/or subsidies implemented by governments of sugar producing countries. "Consequently, world sugar markets often trade below global costs ...