Online Reporter
Emmanuel Kafe
Check Point Desk
ZIMBABWE’s sugar industry is once again edging towards crisis after Lowveld sugarcane outgrowers formally appealed to Government for intervention, accusing milling giant Tongaat Hulett Zimbabwe of imposing unsustainable cane prices and suspending deliveries in a dispute that now threatens the livelihoods of thousands of farmers and workers across Hippo Valley, Triangle and Mkwasine.
At the centre of the dispute is a sharply reduced provisional cane purchase price of US$61.83 per tonne for the 2026 season, down from US$71 last season, despite surging production costs driven by rising fuel, fertiliser and labour expenses.
The latest escalation is contained in a letter dated May 13, 2026, written by veteran Lowveld farmer representative Mr Admore Hwarare to the Minister of Agriculture, Mechanisation and Water Resources Development, Dr Anxious Masuka, requesting urgent government intervention to rescue what growers describe as a rapidly deteriorating crisis in the sugar sector.
Mr Hwarare, an elder principal representing sugarcane outgrower farmers in Hippo Valley, Triangle and Mkwasine, warned that the pricing dispute and suspension of cane deliveries threatened to reverse years of economic gains in the Lowveld and undermine Zimbabwe’s Vision 2030 ambitions.
“Sugarcane as a strategic crop for the country is under threat from economic saboteurs within the crop production value chain,” Hwarare wrote.
In the letter, Hwarare said farmers had not previously sought government intervention on sugarcane pricing, despite years of operating without a gazetted producer price.
However, he argued that the latest reduction ignored harsh realities on the ground where production costs had escalated dramatically.
According to the correspondence, the cost of a 50kg bag of urea fertiliser has risen from US$31 to US$45, while diesel prices increased from US$1.14 per litre to US$2.07 per litre amid global market instability linked to unrest in the Middle East.
Mr Hwarare accused the miller of reducing cane prices precisely when growers were facing mounting operational costs.
“Such decisions risk pushing farmers who are a major economic player out of business completely and reversing the economic gains realised by the Second Republic,” the letter reads.
The dispute has exposed longstanding tensions within Zimbabwe’s sugar industry, where Tongaat Hulett remains the dominant processor controlling milling infrastructure, cane procurement and much of the pricing framework underpinning the sector.
Beyond the pricing row, farmers are also protesting against what they describe as a unilateral suspension of sugarcane deliveries by the miller under the Cane Purchase Agreement (CPA) system.
Mr Hwarare told government that the suspension violated existing agreements and industry operational practices because farmers were not consulted before deliveries were halted.
“The millers have an obligation to receive cane from growers from the beginning of the season to the end, regardless of the state of the agreement,” Mr Hwarare wrote.
The standoff carries potentially severe consequences for growers because harvested cane rapidly deteriorates if not milled in time, losing both weight and sucrose content.
Mr Hwarare warned that standing cane across Triangle, Hippo Valley and Mkwasine was already over-maturing, placing farmers at risk of significant financial losses after heavy investments in fertiliser, labour and irrigation.
He further warned that prolonged delivery suspensions threatened hundreds of small-scale and A2 farmers, seasonal workers and entire communities dependent on the sugar economy in Masvingo Province.
“The sugar industry underpins the Lowveld economy,” Hwarare stated. “A prolonged unilateral ban risks destabilising households, local businesses and the wider Masvingo provincial economy.”
The letter provides rare insight into the growing frustration among outgrowers who for years have accused the industry’s dominant miller of wielding disproportionate control over pricing structures and cane delivery systems.
The latest tensions escalated after Tongaat Hulett Commercial Director Sylvester Mangani wrote to Zimbabwe Sugar Association chairman Dr T.R. Choruma-Dozwa on May 11, 2026, proposing a temporary arrangement while pricing negotiations continue.
In the letter, Mangani said the company would buy cane from CPA farmers at a provisional price of US$61.83 per tonne between May 12 and June 12 pending final determination by the Minister of Industry and Commerce.
Mr Mangani said any future government-approved adjustment would be backdated and farmers compensated for the difference.
“For this period the miller will pay the difference between the determined price and the provisional price,” Mr Mangani wrote.
However, the temporary arrangement has done little to calm tensions in the Lowveld, where growers argue they are negotiating from a position of weakness because they have no viable alternative buyer.
Zimbabwe’s sugar industry has long operated under a structurally imbalanced system in which outgrowers depend almost entirely on Tongaat-owned milling infrastructure to process their cane.
That imbalance has triggered repeated confrontations over pricing, debt recovery, export revenues and land control over the past decade.
In 2013, more than 1 200 growers accused Tongaat of unfairly slashing cane prices under revised milling arrangements that many farmers said pushed them into debt.
Another major fallout erupted in 2017 and 2018 after disputes involving land occupation, plantation control and farmer resettlement triggered confrontations in Chiredzi and Hippo Valley, at one point requiring police intervention.
Relations further deteriorated after indigenous farmers accused Tongaat in 2019 of using more than US$52 million in export proceeds without adequate consultation with growers.
The current dispute also centres on differences between the Cane Purchase Agreement (CPA) and Cane Milling Agreement (CMA) frameworks governing cane deliveries.
In another letter dated May 5, 2026, Mr Mangani told farmer principals that mills could not legally continue accepting cane deliveries under the CPA system because negotiators had failed to agree on a producer price.
“The negotiating process failed to reach agreement on the cane price and therefore the mills cannot buy cane without knowing the price,” Mr Mangani wrote.
The company also indicated that farmers opting into the CMA arrangement would have their Division of Proceeds fixed at 77 percent for the entire season.
Agricultural economist Brian Mudondo said the standoff reflected deeper structural weaknesses within Zimbabwe’s sugar industry.
“When one processor controls the mills, export channels and pricing mechanisms, growers inevitably carry most of the production risks while having limited leverage over the final price,” Mr Mudondo said.
The dispute now places increasing pressure on government to intervene before the crisis escalates further across the Lowveld, where sugarcane production sustains transport operators, seasonal labourers, retailers and thousands of households.
For farmers across Hippo Valley, Triangle and Mkwasine, the stakes are becoming increasingly urgent.
With negotiations still unresolved and cane continuing to lose value in the fields under the scorching Lowveld heat, growers fear the latest dispute could deepen into one of the most serious sugar industry crises Zimbabwe has faced in years.
