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Farmers enjoy sugar rush
Farmers in the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta provinces are rushing to plant sugarcane following the recent sharp increase in prices, and observers say it may lead to abundant supply this year.
From VND850-900/kilo in November 2009, the prices have shot up to VND1,200-1,450 at present, as sugar mills struggle to get raw materials to meet their installed processing capacities.
The Director of a sugar mill in the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta said his factor had a processing capacity of 3,500 tonnes of sugarcane a day, but was only able to get 2,000 tonnes so far.
Nguyen Van Son, Deputy Director of the Can Tho Sugarcane and Sugar Company, said sugar mills had to compete with each other in buying sugarcane due to a shortage of the material, pushing up its price.
Trinh Minh Chau, Director of the Soc Trang Sugarcane and Sugar Joint Stock Company, said his company paid up to VND1,350 for a kilo of sugarcane, but they were still not able to find enough sugarcane.
Several sugar mills had been forced to scale down production or even suspend operations due to a shortage of material, he said.
The situation has encouraged many farmers to return to sugarcane cultivation, after suffering losses in previous harvests.
Pham Thanh Son, Head of Department of Cultivation in Soc Trang Province, said as planned, Soc Trang would have 12,200ha devoted to sugarcane cultivation this crop.
But the current price hike had encouraged farmers to expand cultivation, Son said, noting that though the crop had just begun, as many as 7,000ha of land in the province had already been planted with sugarcane.
Nguyen Phuoc Hung, a farmer in Soc Trang Province's Cu Lao Dung District, said: "I have returned to sugarcane cultivation since its price has increased strongly in recent times."
However, he was also worried that the current high prices would not stay for long. If the price drops, he will incur heavy losses as in previous years.
Tran Van Thang, Deputy Chairman of the People's Committee in Hau Giang Province's Phung Hiep District said sugarcane cultivation area this year had increased strongly over last year.
According to the An Giang Province's Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, the province plans to have 15,000ha of sugarcane this year, an increase of 3,000ha over the last crop. But the real cultivation area this year could be much higher since farmers had tended to plant more areas with the crop, he added.
According to latest estimates, the sugarcane area in the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta has increased by at least 30 per cent over last year, when the region had 52,000ha under cultivation.
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