Sugar association calls for rescue due to mounting stock

A report from the association shows that the country has up to 36 sugar plants, with a total designed crushing capacity of some 150,000 tons of sugarcane per day.

Further, the country has seen its sugarcane cultivation area increase tenfold over the past two decades to 300,000 hectares. Some 1.5 million tons of sugar worth VND300 trillion is turned out each year, meeting domestic demand.

However, bad weather has taken a toll on the 2018-2019 sugarcane crop, marking the third consecutive year of problems for the sugar industry, which is also dogged by declining prices and low consumption in the domestic and global markets. Many sugar and sugarcane plants and firms have shut down after suffering heavy losses.

As of March 15, the sugar plants had turned out a total of 750,000 tons of sugar from eight million tons of sugarcane.

The local industry yielded an estimated 14 million tons of sugarcane, with 1.3 million tons of sugar processed in the 2018-2019 crop harvest, falling by 1.6 million tons and 170,000 tons, respectively, from the previous crop.

Despite lower yield, the association noted the slow consumption of sugar, saying it had resulted from the crop’s previous large inventories and unresolved sugar smuggling as well as rising liquid sugar imports, all of which lowered domestic sugar prices. The RS sugar price averages out at VND10,500 per kilogram.

Apart from the association’s proposal to use sugarcane bagasse to generate electricity and produce fertilizers, Minister Nguyen Xuan Cuong suggested firms utilize the bagasse to grow mushrooms, Lao Dong newspaper reported.

Cuong remarked that it is necessary to cut costs for all processes involved in producing sugar and to raise the maximum value of sugar-based products.

In addition, the minister said the ministries and departments will support the association and sugar firms’ production to ease the burden of their difficulties.

Besides this, the minister approved the proposal to establish a commercial cane sugar (CCS) control center, acting as an intermediary that determines the CCS rate to regain sugarcane farmers’ trust.