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Sugar production meets domestic demands
An Vietnam Sugarcane and Sugar Association (VSSA) official says the country will have sufficient sugar to meet the domestic demands.
Speaking at a conference reviewing the 2007-08 sugar crop, VSSA Secretary General Ha Huu Phai said Vietnam has now stockpiled 1.25 million tonnes of sugar after this year’s crop. The sugar reserve combines last year’s crop and a volume of imported sugar that complies with WTO commitments.
Concerns about market management to cope with the attacks from illegally-imported sugar volumes and general difficulties the sugar industry faces were raised by delegates at the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) conference held on July 24.
According to MARD, though the industry this year is enjoying its fourth high-yield crop, illegal sugar imports are affecting consumption of domestically-produced sugar in the country.
The monthly sales of domestic sugar producers in May and June reduced between 30,000-50,000 tonnes compared to previous months.
The high increase of materials prices has also diminished the economical efficiency of sugarcane plantations and processing, leading to many growers considering a change to other crops. This threatens to create a flow-on effect to the sugar plants who will then face a shortage of materials for production in future years.
While the World Sugar Research Organisation’s experts forecast the increase of sugar price on the world market due to the decreased supply, Vietnam ’s sugarcane acreage for the 2008-09 is expected to reduce by 17,000ha to about 290,000ha.
The conference reported that this would make the output staying at 1.25 million tonnes as this crop despite the increase in productivity.
VNA
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