South Africa's wheat industry is under close scrutiny as the Section 7 Committee examines trade, policy, and structural barriers affecting competitiveness and food security. NAMC experts explain how the industry plans to cope with policy restrictions and protect local grain producers from global shocks.
The Section 7 Committee was formed at the request of the wheat industry to the Minister of Agriculture and the National Agricultural Marketing Council (NAMC). This committee, operating under the Agricultural Marketing Act (Act No. 47 of 1996 with amendments), is tasked with studying the structural and political obstacles hindering the competitiveness of the domestic wheat industry.
The committee is responsible for analyzing issues related to trade policy, institutional and regulatory aspects, and the value chain, providing ministries with recommendations based on factual data. This investigation reflects growing concern that the industry's difficulties extend beyond seasonal production conditions and require a comprehensive assessment of trade policy, structure, and operational environment.
As a strategically important staple food product, wheat plays a central role in South Africa's food supply system. The competitiveness and resilience of the domestic wheat value chain are priorities for the sector and ensuring household food security.
The challenges facing the wheat industry should be viewed from several perspectives: global market dynamics, industry competitiveness and growth, and domestic food security. Recent estimates by the Crop Estimates Committee (CEC) show that in the 2025 production season, South Africa produced 1.91 million tonnes of commercial wheat from an area of 517,300 hectares.
Wheat remains the largest winter cereal crop in the country, underscoring its strategic significance for national food security and the broader grain economy. Analysis shows that while wheat consumption has shown relatively stable growth, production has fluctuated at a relatively constant level. The widening gap between production and domestic use indicates that demand consistently exceeds domestic supply, forcing imports to cover the deficit.
Although domestic wheat production has increased significantly over the past nine decades, this growth has been characterized by substantial year-on-year variability and has resulted in a negative trade balance. Since the early 2000s, wheat imports have noticeably increased, indicating a growing reliance of domestic supply on international markets to meet national needs.
Consequently, South Africa's dependence on imports has strengthened over time. Where imports once constituted a relatively small share of the total available wheat, they now account for a significant portion of domestic supply over the last two decades. This growing dependency exposes the industry to external shocks, such as volatility in international prices, exchange rate changes, global supply disruptions, climate variability, and the weakening of the multilateral trading system.
Recent calculations confirm the structural nature of South Africa's reliance on imported wheat, highlighting the importance of the Section 7 Committee's investigation. Long-term trends in production, consumption, and trade confirm that the problems facing South Africa's wheat industry are structural and require a comprehensive assessment of the political, institutional, and market environment.
Since its establishment in May 2026, the committee has approved its Terms of Reference, clarified the analytical scope, expanded stakeholder participation, created thematic working groups, and begun technical assessments. In line with the social contract approach outlined in the Agricultural and Agro-processing Plan (AAMP), the Committee adopted the working group approach as a suitable methodology for conducting investigations.
The working groups comprise various participants in the value chain. A working group is defined as a parallel track of activities, tasks, and outcomes focused on a specific theme and objective. This approach allows large and complex topics to be broken down into manageable segments, enabling different groups to contribute simultaneously to the overall goal of the investigation.
Different working groups focus on the following functional themes: tariff setting and trade policy regarding wheat and wheat products; value chain constraints, storage, infrastructure, and logistics; transformation and inclusivity along the value chain; food security, biosecurity, innovation, and new breeding methods. The next phase of the committee's work will involve presenting materials to stakeholders, technical analysis, and evidence gathering, which will lead to recommendations for strengthening the competitiveness, sustainability, and long-term viability of South Africa's wheat industry.
The South African sugar industry is in a critical situation amid alarming data showing an almost twofold increase in sugar imports during the first five months of 2026 compared to the same period last year. This influx of imported sugar is displacing local products from store shelves, forcing food and beverage manufacturers to increasingly rely on foreign supply sources, which raises serious concerns about the sustainability of local agriculture.
The industry body SA Canegrowers has strongly appealed to the Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition, Parks Tau, demanding decisive action. They insist on the immediate finalization of an updated tariff mechanism that aligns with current market conditions, emphasizing that this is necessary for the survival of the local sugar industry.
The International Trade Administration Commission (ITAC) is currently assessing whether the existing sugar tariffs reflect a competitive environment, following an application submitted by the industry over 18 months ago. However, the wait for action has been prolonged. According to the South African Revenue Service (SARS), 94,984 tonnes of sugar were imported between January and May 2026. This sharply contrasts with the 55,213 tonnes that entered the market during the same months in 2025. It should be noted that in the previous year, 2022, imports for this period amounted to only 1,491 tonnes, indicating a fundamental shift in the market influenced by weakened tariff protection.
The consequences of this import surge for domestic sales are worrying. According to the South African Sugar Association, from April 1 to June 30, local sales dropped to 255,015 tonnes, representing a loss of over 45,000 tonnes compared to last year. This sharp decline points to a destructive trend: before the tariff system began to fail, monthly sales peaked at 428,422 tonnes, leading to a massive loss of nearly 175,000 tonnes over just a few seasons.
Highlighting the severity of the situation, Higgins Mdluli, chairperson of SA Canegrowers, stated: 'Every tonne of local sugar displaced by imports is a direct blow to the producer's income, the mill's viability, and the stability of the rural community. The scale of what we are witnessing now is nothing less than a crisis.' Most of the sugar entering the South African market comes from countries such as Brazil, India, and Thailand, where producers benefit from generous government subsidies and integrated ethanol regimes that allow them to sell surplus sugar on global markets at prices lower than those of local producers.
Unfortunately, South African consumers are gaining no benefit from this influx of cheap sugar; every imported bag of sugar replacing a domestic one jeopardizes jobs, family incomes, and the survival of rural communities, all without lowering grocery prices. The structure of the South African sugar industry dictates that any unsold sugar must be exported, further complicating the already distorted global market. This, in turn, reduces the local industry's ability to profit from crushed and milled sugarcane, leading to a projected price decrease of more than 10% per tonne compared to last year, which currently stands at around 6,600 rand as of July.
Mdluli added: 'Every week of delay in adjusting the dollar base price costs the industry hundreds of millions of rand in lost sales. We are not asking for a special regime—we demand the correct application of the existing tariff mechanism to ensure a level playing field.' He also noted that 'the South African sugar industry supports over a million livelihoods, most of which are in the rural areas of KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga, where sugarcane cultivation often serves as the sole source of stable income and economic activity for entire communities. Allowing it to be undermined by unfair imports due to a simple administrative change in tariffs would be unthinkable.'
