Vietnam's average sugarcane yield was 64.5 tonnes per hectare in 2021, an increase of 2.5 per cent on year. (Photo: congthuong.vn) According to the Vietnam Sugar Association, the total area supplyingsugarcane is expected to reach 151,305 hectares in the 2022-23 crop.
The crop's output of sugarcane for processing is about 8.76 million tonnes,with the average yield at 66.2 tonnes per hectare. Sugar production fromsugarcane was 870,930 tonnes, an increase of more than 124,000 tonnes comparedto the 2021-22 crop.
Besides that, this positive forecast is supported by applying measures of traderemedies for several cane sugar products imported from Cambodia, Indonesia,Laos, Malaysia and Myanmar within five years.
In the 2022-23 crop, only 24 sugar processing factories are expected tooperate, equal to the number of factories operating in the 2021-22 season, witha total design capacity of 122,200 tonnes of sugarcane per day.
In this crop, according to sugar processing enterprises, to ensure sustainabledevelopment, Vietnam's sugar industry needs to strengthen and develop thelinkage in the sugarcane production chain.
"The enterprises also need to join hands to build a healthy sugar market.The trade remedies for the sugar products are not only against dumping andsubsidy but also to stabilise the market," said Nguyen Van Loc, chairmanof the Vietnam Sugar Association.
In addition, it is necessary to make transparency in the analysis of thecommercial cane sugar (CCS) index and evaluation of removing the impurity rateof sugar in mills. That will bring benefits to farmers and enterprises.
Previously, Vietnam had more than 300,000 hectares for planting sugarcanes.However, in recent years, more than half of the total sugarcane area has beenconverted to other crops by farmers.
Therefore, the sugarcane and sugar industry needs to restore the sugarcanematerial area with 250,000 hectares in 2025 and 300,000 hectares in 2028.
To achieve those development goals, the Vietnam Sugar Association recommendsthat the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development prioritise funding forresearching sugarcane varieties and implementing sugarcane variety projects inkey sugarcane production areas.
It proposes to add sugarcane to the list of eligible crops receiving insurancebecause natural disasters affect sugarcane farmers.
The association also requests the Government and the ministry to support it inbuilding a national traceability management system for sugar products. Thissystem could manage and identify smuggled and fraudulent sugar productsconsumed on the market.
It believes that preventing smuggled and fraudulent products needs theparticipation and cooperation of all association members to enhanceeffectiveness in this activity.
According to the association, in the 2021-22 crop, the total of raw materialsfor processing reached about 7.5 million tonnes of sugarcane, an increase of11.6% compared to the 2020-21 crop.
About 24 factories processed 949,219 tonnes of sugar, including 746,899 tonnesfrom domestic sugarcane and the rest from imported raw sugar.
In the 2021-22 crop, the price of raw sugarcane increased by about 100,000-150,000VND per tonne compared to the previous crop.
That made many farmers return to sugarcane production, leading to an increasein sugarcane yield. Therefore, although the area of sugarcane has decreased,the output of sugarcane was the same as that of the previous crop.
The total sugarcane planting area nationwide in 2021 was 166,902 hectares, downfrom 185,455 hectares in 2020. Vietnam's average sugarcane yield was 64.5tonnes per hectare in 2021, an increase of 2.5% per year./.
VNA
