Historical and contemporary perspectives of the sugar industry in sub-Saharan Africa

Result code in IS VaVaI

<a href="https://www.isvavai.cz/riv?ss=detail&h=RIV%2F60076658%3A12510%2F23%3A43906718" target="_blank" >RIV/60076658:12510/23:43906718 - isvavai.cz</a>

Alternative codes found

RIV/60460709:41110/23:96922

Result on the web

<a href="http://www.ufj.ho.ua/Archiv/UKRAINIAN%20FOOD%20JOURNAL%202023%20V.12%20Is.1.pdf#page=157" target="_blank" >http://www.ufj.ho.ua/Archiv/UKRAINIAN%20FOOD%20JOURNAL%202023%20V.12%20Is.1.pdf#page=157</a>

DOI - Digital Object Identifier

<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.24263/2304-974X-2023-12-1-12" target="_blank" >10.24263/2304-974X-2023-12-1-12</a>

Result language

angličtina

Original language name

Historical and contemporary perspectives of the sugar industry in sub-Saharan Africa

Original language description

Introduction. This paper analyses the trends in sugar and sugarcane production in sub-Saharan Africa, including the core drivers of production by reviewing the current institutional and production arrangements. Materials and methods. The analysis is based on 35 African countries categorized into 4 regions based on the United Nations M49 classification. A detailed literature review was conducted to explain the observed trends and to provide context for the various institutional and production arrangements. The literature reviewed key sugar-related documents at national level, websites of the core companies producing sugar in each country including their annual reports and previous empirical studies undertaken in the major sugarcane producing countries. Results and discussion. The sugarcane industry in South Africa has grown significantly over the last 6 decades, with raw sugar production and sugarcane production increasing by 200 and 215%, respectively. In terms of regional production, the average growth rate for raw sugar production over the period 1961 to 2020 was 2, 3, 3, and 13% for Eastern, Middle, Southern and Western Africa regions, respectively. The Eastern and Southern Africa regions produce a major share of both sugar and sugarcane production accounting for 90 and 86% of total production. Yields have consistently remained low and only Eswatini, Malawi, Tanzania, South Africa, Uganda and Zambia have remained competitive and low cost producers in the region. Some countries like Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania are not self-sufficient and have consistently been net importers of sugar. The countries in question have in the past imposed import restrictions particularly on import tariffs as a way of boosting domestic production. Threats to steady supply of sugar and sugarcane, especially for countries that depend on rain fed agriculture, have continued to emanate from periodic droughts, particularly the major producing Eastern and Southern regions in the early 1990s. The institutional review revealed that the proportion of sugarcane production supplied by smallholder farmers under outgrower schemes compared to the nucleus estate dictates the stability of sugar production in Africa. Outgrowers dominate the production of sugarcane, as is the case in South Africa (92%) and Kenya (90%), which poses a high risk to the steady supply of sugarcane to the milling company involved in sugar production. This may arise because outgrowers may fail to honor their contracts and engage in opportunistic behavior to side-sell their sugarcane to other offtakers. Conclusion. Key to resolving the low yields and threats to sustainable sugarcane production in sub-Saharan Africa will be addressing the institutional and production arrangements of sugarcane production, particularly addressing the issues surrounding outgrower schemes that are the major production models.

Czech name

—

Czech description

—

Type

J_imp - Article in a specialist periodical, which is included in the Web of Science database

CEP classification

—

OECD FORD branch

50202 - Applied Economics, Econometrics

Project

—

Continuities

I - Institucionalni podpora na dlouhodoby koncepcni rozvoj vyzkumne organizace

Publication year

2023

Confidentiality

S - Úplné a pravdivé údaje o projektu nepodléhají ochraně podle zvláštních právních předpisů

Name of the periodical

Ukrainian Food Journal

ISSN

2304-974X

e-ISSN

2313-5891

Volume of the periodical

12

Issue of the periodical within the volume

1

Country of publishing house

UA - UKRAINE

Number of pages

15

Pages from-to

157-171

UT code for WoS article

001039992400010

EID of the result in the Scopus database

2-s2.0-85176964437