VSA says sugar shortage only short-term

The sugar price on the retail market has climbed to the record high 22,000 dong per kilo amid worries about a looming shortage, but the Vietnam Sugar and Sugarcane Association reassured that the situation is short-lived.

Association chair Nguyen Thanh Long explained to the Daily on the phone that the current shortage is due to the fact that sugar factories in the Mekong Delta were only running at 50 percent capacity while the sugarcane harvest has not peaked.

Furthermore, local prices are also spurred by rising prices on the world market, he said.

“International sugar price has reached $600 per tonne, the highest in the year, and the uptrend is seen to continue due to global shortage,” he said.

Some supermarkets in HCM City, facing consumers rushing to buy sugar, have limited the quantity to between three and five kilos of sugar a buyer each day. Sugar in such shops is priced lower owing to the price stabilisation programme for essential commodities launched by the city’s Department of Industry and Trade.

Early this year, in an effort to control the price, the Ministry of Industry and Trade allowed for the importation of more than 150,000 tonnes mostly for commercial purpose, raising the whole year’s import quota to 350,000 tonnes. But according to Long, there is still 100,000 tonnes yet to be imported as global prices are already too high.

“Big distributors in the country like Thanh Thanh Cong Co. and Saigon InfoodCo., according to my knowledge, has not much sugar left in storage,” Long said, but added that he expected the prices to become more stabilised in half a month when sugarcane in the Mekong Delta is ready for harvest and factories can run at their full capacity.

“If prices do not ease, there is still 300,000 tonnes of sugar in the central and northern regions that can help stabilise sugar prices,” he added. – SaigonTimes

Tags: Vietnam sugar, Vietnam Sugar Prices

Posted by VBN on Oct 26 2010. Filed under Agriculture. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry