Cape Town: Refined sugar buyers from the industrial sector have stated that since the beginning of the month there is no production of sugar in the market.
Chris Engelbrecht, chairperson, the Association of Southern Africa Sugar Importers (Asasi) and founder, Super Syrups said that Tongallt’s mills have been closed and the first supply of sugar would be available on May 1.
“Now they have confirmed it won’t be before the end of May. It is already too late for us to import what we need to make up for the delay,” he said.
The supply of imported sugar from Swaziland has been shut down and Ilovo, RCL and Gledhhow did not have any sugar to supply to Super Syrups, he said.
Super Syrups require 500 tons of refined sugar in April for production. “If we were told that sugar was not available, we would have imported some sugar to meet our needs,” he said.
“We are supporting the local producers as per the Sugar Industry Master Plan but sugar is not available in any mill for us,” he said.
