According to the Department of Processing, Trade, Agricultural, Forestry and Salt Products (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development), the current amount of sugar in factory warehouses is over 315,000 tons, nearly 140,000 tons higher than the same period last year.
Mr. Nguyen Thanh Long, Chairman of the Board of Directors, General Director of Can Tho Sugar Joint Stock Company (Casuco), said that Casuco’s member units will harvest the new crop in mid-September. Mr. Long is concerned: “While smuggled sugar continues to be around, large sugar inventories will put pressure on businesses’ bank loan interest rates.” In the new season, factories will sell off and sugar prices will be low, of course pushing farmers’ sugarcane prices lower.”
According to Mr. Nguyen Hai, General Secretary of the Cane and Sugar Association, there is a lot of sugar in stock, factories are losing money, which will certainly push sugarcane prices down for farmers. “Low prices and losses for sugarcane farmers are a scary prospect. If farmers abandon sugarcane, the source of raw materials that factories have built for a long time will collapse. As for smuggled sugar coming in massively, factories will continue to use the smuggled sugar and the factories will die first” – Mr. Hai warned.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, currently and in the coming years, the amount of sugar produced domestically far exceeds demand. To stabilize domestic production and ensure the lives of millions of sugarcane farmers, there needs to be a solution for processing, consuming and exporting all excess sugar. In the immediate future, it can be exported to China via border trade. This Ministry also requested the Ministry of Industry and Trade to have measures to strictly control temporary import and re-export of sugar through border gates.