User:Mtm029/sandbox

Economy of Swaziland first edits (incomplete still adding more)

Swaziland is the fourth largest producer of sugar in Africa and is 25th in production in the world. This demonstrates the immense focus of the industry in order to continue to grow their economy. Swaziland’s GDP was $8.621 billion (US dollars) in 2014 base on purchasing power parity and of that 7.2% of that is from the agriculture sector and of that sector, sugarcane and sugar products have the largest impact on GDP. According to the World CIA Factbook, wood pulp and sugarcane were the largest exports of Swaziland until the wood pulp producer closed in January 2010. This left the sugarcane industry as the sole main export. The largest company that produces sugar in Swaziland is the Royal Swaziland Sugar Corporation (RSSC) and it produces a little under two-thirds of total sugar in the country and produces over 3,000 jobs for the people of Swaziland. The RSSC is composed of two main sugar mill producers, Mhlume and Simunye, which produce a combined 430,000 tons of cane per season. The second largest sugarcane company is Ubombo Sugar Limited which has grown from producing 5,600 tons in 1958 to approximately 230,000 tons of sugar annually. The third largest sugarcane producer is the Tambankulu Estate (largest independent sugar estate)and it produces 62,000 tons of sugar annually on 3,816 hectares of land.

The largest export partners of Swaziland and the larger Southern African Development Community (SADC) is the European Union. The SADC is a group of many southern African countries who have banned together in order to try to improve their individual socioeconomic status. In 2014-2015 the sugar production of Swaziland was 680,881 metric tons and of this about 355,000 metric tons of sugar was shipped to the European Union, larger than any other export partner. Another trade partner for Swaziland was the United States where they shipped 34,000 metric tons of sugar in the 2014-2015 year under the Tariff Rate Quota. These numbers are up from past years and continue to rise. The expected output based on the 2015-2016 post forecast predictions are that Swaziland will produce 705,000 metric tons, a new record for the country that can be attributed to an increase in land being available for sugar cultivation. Of this predicted figure about 390,000 metric tons will go to the European Union as part of a new Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA). This new agreement between the EU and SADC means that members like Swaziland can sell there sugar on a duty-free and quota- free basis.

The quotas that the EU and the United States fill is similar to the Sugar Protocol which began in 1975. The goal of the Sugar Protocol was for the EU to purchase and import specific quantities from countries in Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific. These prices and quantities guaranteed production and were well above the world price, which translated into substantial profits for these mostly impoverished countries. This agreement reached an end in 2009 because the EU could no longer support the pre-determined demands. The Sugar Protocol came to an immediate end and was replaced with separate Economic Partnerships with the varying countries and regions. Even though the demands will be just as high as under the Sugar Protocol, the prices will drop significantly. In the case of Swaziland, they have received good reassurance that their product will still be bought by the EU.

Sugar Current state - Plan to use the federal sources that give specific figures about production and who the exports are being sold to. - Current state of the Sugar Protocol and the demand that is being created as a result of the changing policy - Small land farmers impact on the market - Estimates for following years - Where are the biggest plantations in the country (Mbendi and the SSA source)

Workers Riots -Wage disputes impact on market/Culture

Mostly going to talk about the figures and the production benefits of Swaziland's sugar on the country. Most of these numbers will paint a picture about how Swaziland is doing economically.

http://www.ssa.co.sz/ http://eeas.europa.eu/delegations/barbados/eu_barbados/development_coop/sugar_protocol/index_en.htm

This article discusses the Sugar Protocol in Africa and how it did guarantee bought product from Europe to help stimulate African countries economies. This article is reliable because it is from the website that's main goal is to provide information about the Sugar Protocol and its effect on third world countries. The article is neutral because it just deals with the factual numbers that are a result of the sugar protocol.

http://www.eeas.europa.eu/delegations/swaziland/documents/eu_swaziland/nationaladaptationstrategy.pdf

This is a PDF file that gives a detailed report about the changing EU sugar demand as of 2009. The details of this report are ways to help make up for the lost production that will happen as a result of the EU reforming the Sugar Protocol. Even though sugar will still be there main export, it will decrease in production because Europe was one of its main sellers. This report is reliable because it is an official document that is used to make an economic decision. This article is neutral because it also deals in factual evidence and trying to fix an issue that will need fixing in the future.

http://gain.fas.usda.gov/Recent%20GAIN%20Publications/Sugar%20Annual_Pretoria_Swaziland_4-20-2015.pdf http://gain.fas.usda.gov/Recent%20GAIN%20Publications/Sugar%20Annual_Pretoria_Swaziland_4-10-2014.pdf

This article is a quick synopsis about sugar production in 2015 and make estimates for 2016. This article is neutral because it is just a report to tell what the numbers are and it is also reliable because it is from the USDA Foreign Agriculture Service. The second link is from the same source but for 2014-2015

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/wz.html

This is from the CIA Factbook and it gives up to date information about GDP and other sugar cane statistics.

http://www.mbendi.com/indy/agff/sugr/af/sw/p0005.htm#events

Mbendi is an African information service and it gives information about biggest plantations and events that have happened in relation to the Sugar Cane industry. This source is reliable because it has already been approved on my Economy of Swaziland and it is a database that points to other news articles.

http://www.times.co.sz/news/97660-more-sugar-cane-fields-set-ablaze.html

This article is from the local Swaziland paper and it details the wage cuts that are a result of the changing demand for sugar from Europe. This specific incidence is about farm hands who burned down sugar fields in a strike. This article might be more biased because it is a very passionate issue that affects many people. The source is reliable though because it is from a local newspaper.

http://www.times.co.sz/news/98643-ubombo-sugar-ltd-fires-10-workers.html

This article is from the same newspaper source and talks about the same issue of a strike due to wage disputes. This article talks about the firing of 10 workers due to the issue.