The Crops (Sugar) (General) Regulations, 2018 have been prepared to effect the Crops Act 2013 and the AFA Act 2013. The Crops Act consolidates the laws on the regulation and promotion of agriculture in line with the constitution and was gazetted in August 2018. The AFA Act, 2013 came into effect in January 2014 and lays out the roles and duties of the Agriculture and Food Authority (AFA). All previous agricultural regulatory bodies have been reformed as directorates under the AFA, including the Sugar Directorate.
The draft regulations augment and further define the roles of the AFA and the Sugar Directorate, ruling that:
The AFA will:
- Issue licenses for mills to operate
- Assign zones to millers
- Assign zones to cane growers
- Set up a pricing committee to set a sugarcane pricing formula, dictating the sugar price
- Register all sugar harvesters
- Register all sugar transporters
- Issue permits where transporters seek to transport sugar across zones
The Sugar Directorate will:
- be the sole provider of certified seeds and authorize any other seed agents
- act as an intermediary between the authority and the industry
- formulate sugar policies
- implement sugar policies
- mobilise resources
- regulate sugar exports and imports
- monitor the market for distortions
- provide advice to grower institutions
- provide advice to millers
Millers must:
- invest in executive team to run mills and build mills prior to being licensed for operation
- be members of an umbrella association to advocate their interests
- administer direct agreements or contracts with cane growers
- conduct corporate social responsibility in their local community.
Growers must:
- be members of an umbrella association to advocate their interests.
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