Sugar industry before new crop year

(Baonghean) -At the end of the 2012-2013 crushing season, the raw material areas of the three sugar factories in the province were generally quite stable. However, due to the decrease in world sugar prices, the price of sugarcane also decreased, causing difficulties for sugarcane growers.

Low sugar prices, difficult to sell

Preparing for the new pressing season (2013-2014), Nghe An Tate & Lyte Sugar Company still has about 5 thousand tons of unsold sugar in its warehouse. The reason is that in the 2012-2013 pressing season, the company purchased over 1 million tons of sugarcane, while last year it was only about 650 thousand tons; the company's sugar output increased dramatically to 100 thousand tons of sugar, while in the 2011-2012 pressing season it was only about 70 thousand tons. The high output, while smuggled sugar from Thailand flooded the domestic market, caused the sugar price to drop rapidly. Last year, the sugar price was around 15,000 VND/kg, but since the beginning of the year, the sugar price has dropped to only 14.2 - 14.5 thousand VND/kg. Of which, the price of white sugar has dropped the most, down to 13,000 VND/kg.

Because the sugar price has dropped, the price of sugarcane for farmers has also dropped (according to regulations, the price of sugarcane for farmers is 60% of the sugar price). And the sugarcane growers have suffered the heaviest losses. Ms. Pham Thi Sam, Khe Men hamlet, Dong Hop commune (Quy Hop) said: “My family has more than 1 hectare of sugarcane but we had to wait until March 2013 for the company to issue an order to harvest the sugarcane. Because it was left for a long time, the sugar content and weight of the sugarcane decreased, causing the price of sugarcane to decrease as well. In previous years, my family harvested about 90 tons of sugarcane from 1 hectare of sugarcane, with a selling price of over 900,000 VND/ton, and the family earned more than 80 million VND. But in the last sugarcane crop, my family only harvested 80 tons, with a price of 800,000 VND/ton, earning 64 million VND. After deducting expenses, there was not much profit left. Moreover, due to slow purchasing, it has affected production in the next crop.”

To share the difficulties with farmers, before purchasing sugarcane, the company held a meeting and agreed with the people: The company will take half the loss and the people will take half the loss. This solution was agreed by the majority of people because in difficult times, sharing difficulties is important.

According to many businesses, it is impossible to reduce sugarcane prices any further because it will affect farmers' income. Mr. Le An said: If the company reduces sugarcane purchasing prices, people will not make a profit and will switch to growing other crops. From here, raw materials for the company's operations will not be guaranteed and operations will not be effective. Mr. An suggested: The reason why smuggled sugar from Thailand is still rampant in the domestic market is because the sugar price is cheap, combined with the fact that VAT is not calculated when selling at retail, which reduces the competitiveness of domestic businesses. Therefore, the State needs to take stronger and more drastic measures to prevent smuggled sugar and can propose to the WTO not to continue granting import quotas while domestic sugar is still in surplus.

Sugarcane transportation in Tam Hop (Quy Hop)

Ready for new pressing

At this time, sugar factories in the province are ready for the new pressing season. Mr. Le Thanh An - Deputy Director of Song Lam Sugar Joint Stock Company said: The raw material area of ​​the factory in the 2013-2014 crop year is 1,8000 hectares, an increase of more than 100 hectares of sugarcane compared to the previous crop year, the pressing capacity will increase to 1,000 tons/day, an increase of 150 tons/day compared to the previous crop year. The factory is actively maintaining equipment and machinery, such as installing new sugar cooking tanks, installing an additional 80-ton electronic weighing station, and installing new sugar analyzers. The factory is expected to start the pressing season on November 10. The factory is committed to farmers to purchase all sugarcane in the raw material area, the transportation system will transport sugarcane to farmers as quickly as possible. The biggest difficulty now is that many raw material routes in Anh Son, Thach Ngan - Con Cuong are degraded, the factory is focusing on maintaining and repairing some raw material routes.

At the Tate & Lyle sugar factory, since the beginning of the season, they have coordinated with local authorities to direct farmers to plant in batches, early and late ripening sugarcane varieties, so this pressing season will be shortened by about 135 days. The factory still maintains the bonus policy for sugarcane with high sugar content. Up to this point, the factory has focused on maintaining and repairing machinery and equipment, adjusting some technological equipment to improve production efficiency. The company has allocated 1.2 billion VND to maintain and repair 15 sugarcane raw material routes, mainly concentrated in communes of Quy Hop and Nghia Dan districts. It is expected that from November 15, the pressing season will officially start, and the company will publicly announce the price of sugarcane to sugarcane growers.

According to data from the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, the 2013-2014 sugarcane crushing season has 27,000 hectares of sugarcane raw material area, an increase of over 2,000 hectares compared to the previous season. Thanks to intensive investment and introduction of new varieties into production, sugarcane productivity is higher than last year, estimated at 60 tons/ha. Mr. Loc shared: Increasing sugarcane productivity means increasing income for people and improving the efficiency of the factory. In the current difficult period, sugarcane companies need to strengthen their links and coordinate with each other to overcome difficulties, should not compete for raw material areas and need to share profits with farmers.

Pham Bang - Van Truong