Interrogating the Logic of Accumulation in the Sugar Sector in Southern Africa

Abstract

Over the last 20 years sugar production in southern Africa has been characterised by both the geographic dispersal and the heightened concentration of (formerly) South African sugar capital. This paper argues that key variations in the contours of corporate accumulation in the region can be explained through dynamics generated by two sets of interacting variables: (i) the changing productivity of sugar manufacturing and sugar cane cultivation, and the interaction between them, and (ii) shifting terms of pricing and exchange, as governed by mercantile politics. An arithmetic model for the analysis of data is applied in the case of Illovo Sugar. It shows that high profits in Malawi are due to both favourable mercantile and productivity features; that Mozambican profits come exclusively from mercantilism; that Tanzania, Swaziland and especially Zambia owe their relative profitability to particularly high levels of productivity, and that South Africa, Illovo's country of origin, receives low profits in both mercantile and productivity terms. These differences are rooted in value relations, which are core to understanding accumulation in sugar. The paper argues that, although the logic of sugar is somewhat unique, the approach to the analysis of accumulation adopted here has wider application. IntroductionThe southern African sugar sector has attracted renewed attention from academics, policymakers, non-governmental organisations and the media, and is often portrayed in starkly contrasting narratives of 'boom or bust', 1 'development' or corporate corruption. In contemporary scholarship on the agrarian political economy of Africa, sugar is often included as a key case in contemporary debates on land (or water) 'grabbing', 'socially inclusive' business models, contract farming, biofuel production, as well as in long-running debates on the politics of land 472 Alex Dubb reform, rural accumulation and national development. 2 Sugar's place in these debates has some distinctive features. Whereas other land-based and agro-industrial development schemes have tended to stall, expansion of large South African sugar companies into the wider region has witnessed substantial productive investments and boasted improved levels of employment in several countries, as well as opened opportunities for production by thousands of small-scale farmers. Key questions that arise include: what has driven this expansion, what have been its effects to date, and what is its wider significance for debates on the potential of large-scale agricultural investments to reduce rural poverty?This article seeks to assess the dynamics of the southern African sugar sector by examining the 'logic' of capital accumulation. It does so through analysis of value relations, as understood in Marxist political economy, an approach rooted in the changing productivity of labour and its effects on profitability, and influenced by mercantile (trade) relations and their politics. However, there are a number of product-specific reasons for the drive to achieve economie...

Outgrowers and Livelihoods: The Case of Magobbo Smallholder Block Farming in Mazabuka District in Zambia

“…Indeed, as Dubb notes, ZSC stands out as a 'profit powerhouse' among the Illovo Group's six southern African country operations, owing to its high efficiency in cane production and the largest single-mill processing capacity at 450,000 tonnes per annum. 35 Illovo in turn makes good use of Zambia's profit repatriation policy that allows an investor to repatriate all profits after tax obligations are met.…”

Social Differentiation and the Politics of Land: Sugar Cane Outgrowing in Kilombero, Tanzania

“…Illovo also operates mills and estates in Mozambique, South Africa and Swaziland. 58 However, despite its initial success in increasing sugar cane production and the number of outgrowers in Kilombero Valley, the image of Illovo and other similar companies remains tainted by the stigma of apartheid. 59 As discussed in the next section, outgrowers have been central to the production of sugar cane processed by KSCL since the 1960s, but the terms of outgrower contracts have changed markedly under Illovo.…”

Path Analysis and Correlation of Influential Socioeconomic Factors in the Production of Sugarcane

“…The social variables related to the vocation and practical ability of the successors showed a prominent observed correlation between them, which also allows to infer that the involvement of the successors with responsibility in the activities of the rural establishment, impacts directly or indirectly on the results of IBCcane (Inwood and Sharp, 2012). In addition, that revenue from sugarcane activity depends on arrangements and combinations of markets, but that social factors can be directly associated with the levels of productivity and profitability of establishments in this agricultural sector (Dubb, 2017).…”

“…Thus, a better understanding of the socioeconomic factors of the sugarcane productive system, supported by statistical methods, can enable the farmer to use a wealth of tools to support both the planning process and the decision. Profitability can be achieved with very different attributes and with equally distinct social outcomes (Dubb, 2017).…”