Vietnam's domestic sugar volume has not met country's demands

Hanoi (VNA) – The volume of sugar produced domestically has not met the country’s demands, so Vietnam has had to import sugar, according to the Vietnam Sugarcane and Sugar Association (VSSA).

In the 2009-10, the country’s sugar output was estimated at 984,000 tonnes, 5,000
tonnes less than the previous year due to a drop in sugarcane output. This was not
enough to supply the country’s 40 sugar refineries.

At a conference to review the 2009-10 sugarcane and sugar crop and plans for the
future was held in Hanoi on May 11, the VSSA President Vo Thanh Dang said that
the 2009-10 sugarcane crop was badly affected by inclement weather, causing a low
sugar output.

Meanwhile, Doan Xuan Hoa, the Deputy Head of the Agro-Forestry, Seafood and Salt
Processing and Trade Department under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural
Development (MARD), reported that Vietnam had to import 200,000 tonnes of sugar
in 2010 due to a decrease in the sugarcane acreage and sugar reserves.

He added that the sugarcane and sugar sector’s biggest difficulty was a lack of
raw materials problem. Since 1999, sugarcane capacity and quality has seen no
improvement and has even decreased.

In 1999, the country has 350,000 ha of sugarcane with the capacity to yield 50.8
tonne per ha, but in 2009-10, the figures were 265,000 ha and 51.7 tonnes per ha.

Based on this, MARD has forecast that it will be difficult to produce enough raw
materials domestically for processing in 2010-2011 .

In the scheme till 2015, Vietnam plans to plant an additional 300,000 ha of
sugarcane and focus on intensive sugarcane farming.

Firstly, the sector will pay closer attention to the up-coming summer-autumn
sugarcane crop, to produce 11 million tonnes of sugarcane, which is expected to meet
nearly 70 percent of the country’s sugar plants’ capacity.-Enditem