Vietnam now has enough sugar, says VSA

Vietnam now has enough sugar for local demand after importing 36 percent of this year’s quota of 200,000 tonnes of sugar, according to the Vietnam Sugar and Sugarcane Association (VSA).

VSA President Vo Thanh Dang told the Daily that the Ministry of Industry and Trade suggested at a recent meeting that importing 300,000 tonnes of sugar would help stabilise the market. However, in 2010′s first quarter, Vietnam imported 73,000 tonnes of sugar for the food and beverage industry, so “another 300,000 tonnes won’t be necessary;’ Dang said.

VSA members mostly located in the Mekong Delta and the Central Region produced 904,000 tonnes of sugar in 2009-2010, lower than initial expectations.

However, according to Dang, the figure excludes sugar produced by small factories in Vietnam.

While the country requires 1.1 million tonnes of sugar, the amount produced in the country plus additional imports is sufficient for local demand.

Sugar prices in 2009 and in 2010′s first quarter have been turbulent, reaching a record $753 per tonne in January this year, after slumping to about $472 in August last year.

As a result, sugar climbed to 22,000 dong per kilo on the retail market this January.

Some enterprises, as required by the Ministry of Industry and Trade, imported a total 50,000 tonnes of white sugar in February in a bid to stabilise the market.

Tran Tan Phat, director of Thanh Cong, an enterprise that imported thousand of tonnes of sugar, said that the current price drops have negatively affected his business.

TBKTSG

Tags: Vietnam sugar, Vietnam sugar imports