South African Sugar Cane Growers Association calls for removal of sugar tax

The South African Sugar Cane Growers Association (SA Canegrowers) has called on South African Finance Minister Godong Guana to abolish the health promotion or sugar tax in his budget speech on February 23 to boost the industry and A warning that doubling the sugar tax could threaten 21,805 jobs
.
The association had previously brought to the attention of the South African Ministry of Finance the results of a socio-economic assessment commissioned by the National Economic Development and Labour Council, which concluded that the sugar tax had cost South Africa more than 16,000 jobs and R2.
05 billion in revenue in the first year of implementation alone
.
Separately, the association commissioned the South African Food and Agricultural Policy Agency to model the impact of the sugar tax under different scenarios, and the assessment concluded that maintaining the sugar tax at current levels will be a major factor in the reduction of 46,600 hectares of sugarcane planted area over the next decade
.