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Sugar companies … killing each other
The sugar industry has grown stagnant not simply because of illegally-imported ‘dirty sugar’, but also because sugar plants are ‘killing each other’ by refusing to cooperate.
Before the 2009-2010 annual crop, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the Vietnam Sugar and Sugar Cane Association gathered sugar plants, reminding them that production will begin on September 15, 2009 and asking the plants to follow the schedule.
In fact, the ministry and association gather sugar plants every year and say the same thing: sugar plants need to strictly follow the schedule and cooperate with each other in production. Representatives of sugar plants who attend the meetings always promise to do as they are told.
However, invariably, they break their promises. Currently in the Mekong Delta, nine sugar plants have begun harvesting their crops and scrambling for sugar cane already, sooner than the scheduled time.
Ben Tre Sugar Joint Stock Company has denounced the Long My Phat Sugar Plant in Hau Giang province for beginning production two weeks ahead of schedule.
A representative of Thoi Binh Sugar Plant in Ca Mau province said that Long My Phat is sending staffs to Thoi Binh district, where Thoi Binh Plant is located, to collect sugar cane there. Meanwhile, Thoi Binh Plant itself is lacking materials for production, since the local material growing area can provide just 105,000 tonnes of sugar cane, while the plant needs 60,000 tonnes more than that.
A lot of other sugar companies, including Soc Trang, Tra Vinh and Ben Tre, have asked for the state to ‘punish’ Long My Phat in accordance with the regulations of the sugar and sugar cane association.
Meanwhile, Long My Phat has also denounced other sugar companies of scrambling for materials in Long My Phat’s material growing area -- Phung Hiep district. A representative of Long My Phat Company said that many other companies are also scrambling for sugar cane prematurely, thus causing chaos in the market.
Sugar plants do harm to each other
Sugar plants well know that if they reached an agreement on the day of beginning the harvest and clearly delimited material growing areas for each other, they would be able to get profit not only for themselves, but also ensure profit for sugar cane growers.
According to Trinh Thi Sum, Chairwoman of Bien Hoa Sugar Company, the scrambling for materials has caused a lot of problems: sugar cane has high levels of impurities, sugar cane has many leaves. Some petty merchants, who purchase sugar cane from farmers to sell to sugar plants, even soak sugar cane in water to make the sugar cane heavier. However, sugar plants still have purchase the materials because they need materials for production.
The scrambling for materials has also prompted farmers to break the contracts signed with sugar plants and sell sugar cane even when sugar cane is unripe. As they sell unripe sugar cane, the quality of the materials for sugar production is low, with only 7-8 CCS instead of 10 CCS. The low quality of sugar cane affects the quality of sugar and makes production costs higher.
The policies also… faulty
Why do sugar plants scramble madly for materials? Simply, because of the serious shortage of sugar cane. Sugar cane has been seriously lacking for the last several years due to bad programming in sugar cane growing area development.
According to Sum, Tay Ninh, which was once the biggest sugar cane growing province, has witnessed its sugar cane growing area decrease dramatically. Analysts have warned that the sugar cane output will be able to meet 50 percent of the demand of sugar plants in the next two or three crops
The problem is not only occurring in the south, but in the north as well. According to the Nong Cong Sugar Company in Thanh Hoa province, the province once planned to develop 6,000 hectares of sugar cane, but only 1,200 hectares are still being grown. On the land reserved for growing sugar cane, farmers have been farming rubber and pineapple as well.
It is, according to Professor Vo Tong Xuan, a famous agriculture expert in Vietnam, because farmers have to look after themselves as the state has not put forth measures to ensure that sugar farmers can make adequate profit.
The current serious problems make producers worry that the target of 1.4 million tonnes of sugar by 2010 is out of reach.
vietnamnet, ld
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