Southern African Development Community (SADC) sugar production statistics

The Southern African sugar season runs from April to March

The Southern African sugar production region benefits from ideal growing conditions, full-scale irrigation from secure water sources and efficient milling operations, to make it one of the lowest-cost producing areas in the world.  Average annual production over the past five years remains above 5 million tons of sugar with increasing consumption levels which currently exceed 3.5 million tons.  The main SADC sugar producing countries are:

• Malawi
• Mauritius
• Mozambique
• Swaziland
• South Africa
• Tanzania
• Zambia
• Zimbabwe

Approximately 5.2 million tons of sugar was estimated to be produced by SADC countries in 2008/09.	Annual sugar consumption across the SADC region was forecast to remian above 3.5 million tons.
Exports to premium-priced markets in the EU and USA are very important to SADC sugar producing countries.