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Sugar pours across border
A record volume of sugar was exported to China over the past three months, according to the Viet Nam Sugar and Sugarcane Association.
The association reported that from July to the beginning of October, 100,000 tonnes of sugar was exported to China, boosting the total figure for the year to date to over 200,000 tonnes.
This was a record for Viet Nam, the association said.
However, the association's secretary Nguyen Hai said this could lead to problems.
"If the volume of sugar exported to China continues to increase in the last months of this year, the domestic sugar price will surely increase," Hai said, adding that it was abnormal to export more than 30,000 tonnes of sugar to the northern neighbour in one month.
Hai explained that part of this sugar was domestically produced while the rest was imported from Thailand.
Hai noted that although the country had large volumes of stockpiled sugar, there was not enough to meet domestic demand and it was still necessary to import stock from other countries.
"The shortage in the domestic market has pushed the price up," he added.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the 2011-12 crop has already started, and some manufacturers have produced up to 30,000 tonnes. This crop is estimated at 1.3-1.4 million tonnes in total, an increase of 150,000-200,000 tonnes over the previous crop.
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