Shortly after the June 26 protest march lead by SAFDA, SASA and other industry stakeholders, the FairPlay Movement’s founder, Francois Baird took to the airwaves for a number of television and radio interviews.
Baird reinforced the industry’s key messages emphasizing that small-scale farmers are being hit the hardest.
In interviews Baird highlighted how the South Africa market is being flooded by dumped sugar and elaborated on how delays in implementing a responsive tariff adjustment is throwing people out of work and destroying the livelihoods of small growers.
Highlighting the social and economic consequences of South Africa’s sugar trade policy paralysis Baird noted that already 15,000 jobs have been lost and that the sugar industry in South Africa is contracting when, in fact, it could be growing and creating jobs with policies that support industry diversification.
