R225m to boost SA's small-scale sugar growers

More than R225m in funding by the South African Sugar Association (SASA) has been allocated to small-scale growers in South Africa; it flows from the sugar industry's commitment to transformation interventions under the rubric of SASA, as well as commitments under the Sugar Cane Value Chain Masterplan.

Source: Victoria Priessnitz via Unsplash

The SASA transformation funding, of which canegrowers contribute 64%, was allocated across two grower support programmes:

• R115,4m was allocated to intervention one, which provides grant funding for black growers delivering under 1,800 tonnes of cane; and
• R50,47m was allocated to intervention two, which provides grant funding to black growers delivering above 1,800 tonnes of cane.

The additional R60m agreed under the Masterplan was apportioned between all qualifying small-scale growers, that is, growers on communal land, and growers on freehold land delivering less that 1,800 tonnes of cane.

"The payments come at a good time for small-scale growers,"comments SA Cangrowers who has welcomed the R225m transformation funding, a number of whom were affected by the unrest in July 2021.