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Sugar imports cleared to prevent price spike
Vietnam will import 280,000 tons of sugar this year to prevent the price of the sweetener from surging further on the local market, said the Ministry of Industry and Trade.
The amount will be imported in three shipments, the ministry said, without disclosing a specific timeframe.
But Nguyen Thanh Long, General Director of Can Tho Sugar Company, said importing sugar would not be an effective measure to stabilize the local market unless the government decided to cut import duties.
Sugar retail prices have increased nearly 30 percent over the past two month to VND22,000 a kilogram.
According to Shree Renuka Sugars Ltd., India’s biggest refiner and importer, a global sugar deficit, which has pushed prices to the highest since 1981, will continue for a third year as adverse weather lowers production in Asia.
Do Hang Quang, General Director Assistant of NIVL, an Indian-invested sugar company in the Mekong Delta province of Long An, said the government should allow local refiners to import raw sugar for production, instead of letting food and beverage companies import refined sugar themselves.
With raw materials sugar refiners can maintain their operation and keep jobs, Quang said, noting that raw sugar is also much cheaper.
Sugar prices in Vietnam surged because local refiners did not have enough materials, not because producers engaged in price fixing, he said.
Last month Deputy Agriculture Minister Diep Kinh Tan accused sugar companies in the country of working together to raise prices and enjoy huge profits.
“Sugar plants evidently shake hands to boost prices,” Tan said in an interview published by Tien Phong newspaper.
ThanhNien, Agencies
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