Retailer Shoprite has partnered with SA Canegrowers to encourage South African consumers to buy locally produced sugar.
The Home Sweet Home campaign will see the locally produced sugar being prioritised in Shoprite, Checkers, Checkers Hyper and Usave supermarkets in South Africa.
SA Canegrowers initiated the campaign on December, 9 2020 with the aim of educating consumers about the threats the local industry is facing when it comes to the influx of cheap sugar imports and to encourage them to buy local sugar to safeguard rural jobs.
The Shoprite group has started rolling out in-store advertising in the sugar aisles of all their branches to enable the Home Sweet Home message to reach more consumers.
SA Canegrowers chairman Andrew Russell said: “We welcome the Shoprite Group’s efforts to achieve this target, including partnering with us on our Home Sweet Home campaign. We hope to see more retailers and other industry stakeholders follow Shoprite’s example and commitment to helping us secure the future of the industry and its workers.”
According to SA Canegrowers, the industry has faced serious challenges over the past decade, including droughts, increasing production costs, falling world sugar prices, and the introduction of a sugar tax.
SA Canegrowers said these challenges had threatened 21 000 small-scale growers, 65 000 direct jobs, 270 000 indirect jobs, and the 1 million people the industry supported.
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