Sugarcane harvesting output drops 5,000 tonnes in 2009-2010 crop

The 2009-2010 sugarcane crops ended with poor results. The total volume of harvested sugarcane was estimated at 904,000 tonnes, about 5,000 tonnes lower in comparison with the previous crop.
The processing capacity of sugar refineries reached 61.2 percent against the designed capacity.

From the beginning of the crop, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development planned to expand the sugarcane plantation area to 12,620 hectares, rising over 6 percent against the previous year. However, at the ending time, the total area for growing sugarcanes was posted at 265,136 hectares, down 5,464 hectares year-on-year. The area for growing sugarcanes for sugar refinery plants was only 242,413 hectares, down 5,307 hectares.

According to the statistics, the average sugarcane productivity in recent years was estimated at 60 tonne per hectare. However, in 2009-2010 crops, the productivity reached only 51.7 tonnes per hectares.

The sugar refineries reported to purchase 9,747,800 tonnes, meeting the production capacity of the plants of 61.2 percent. Among 40 sugar refinery plants, there were only two plants that had sufficient raw materials; 13 plants ran at below 50 percent of designed capacity. Especially, Tuyen Quang Sugar Refinery operated at 21 percent of designed capacity and Sugar Vietnam Co at 15.5 percent.

In the past three years, the sugar refinery companies have made investment to raise total production capacity from 86,500 tonnes per day to 105,700 tonnes per day. However, the reduction in sugarcane growing areas and productivity resulted in serious shortage in raw materials.

Doan Xuan Hoa, vice head of department of agricultural, forestry and aquatic products revealed that the sugar industry failed to meet all the expected targets. In 2007, the prime minister had approved the general development plan for sugar processing industry up to 2010 with such targets as: the total sugarcane growing area of 300,000 hectares, sugarcane productivity of 65 tonnes per hectare at average, the total sugarcane output of 19.5 million tonnes and total processed sugar output of 1.5 million tonnes. However, after 2009-2010 sugarcane crop, the actual results were: total sugarcane growing area reached 265,000 hectares, down 11.7 percent against the plan, average sugarcane productivity of 51.7 tonnes per hectare, down 20.5 percent; total industrial sugar output of 904,000 tonnes,
lacking by 300,000 tonnes in comparison with market demands.

In the coming sugarcane crop, the total sugarcane growing area is expected to be expanded to 278,000 hectares, up 13,000 hectares against the previous year. The sugarcane productivity was targeted to increase to 11 million tonnes, meeting 69 percent of the production capacity of the sugar refinery plants.

Up to 2015, the whole country planned to raise the total sugarcane growing area to 300,000 hectares, increasing the average productivity to 65 tonnes per hectare, sugarcane output of 17.2 million tonnes and sugar production output of 1.75 million tonnes, meeting the domestic demands and for export purposes.

TBKTVN

Tags: Vietnam agriculture, Vietnam sugar, Vietnam sugarcane