Duty-free Sugar Imports Pile Pressure On Local Sugar Industry

Sugar producer, Hippo Valley Estates Limited says the local sugar industry has been negatively affected by the lifting of all restrictions on the importation of basic grocery items including sugar.

In a statement of financial results for the year ended 31 March 2023, Hippo Valley said the suspension of duty has resulted in sugar from stable economies being dumped onto the local market. The company said:

With the recently introduced Statutory Instrument 80 of 2023 allowing duty-free importation of several commodities including sugar, the sugar industry faces huge pressure to compete against imports coming from competitors operating in stable and subsidized environments.

Additionally, the ongoing rolling power outages are set to compound recovery challenges across the economy.

The company continues to monitor and navigate these complexities and implement appropriate value preservation measures.

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In May last year, and again this year, the Government suspended import duty on 11 products, namely sugar, maize meal, rice, milk, flour, salt, cooking oil, petroleum jelly, toothpaste, bath soap, and washing soap.

Finance and Economic Development Minister, Mthuli Ncube, said the move was necessitated by unjustified price increases by suppliers.

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