The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has allowed businesses to export up to 150,000 tonnes of sugar to develop production this year.

The export volume is 100,000 tonnes lower than the Viet Nam Sugarcane Association's proposal but it will help sugar refineries take back their investment capital quickly and stop selling sugar at a loss.

The association reported that sugar refineries were selling at the price of VND15,500 (US$0,73) per kilogram, while its production cost was more than VND16,000.

Many enterprises were considering reducing the price of sugarcane from VND1,000 to VND900 per kg. If they did it, the income of sugarcane growers would be affected.

The country's total supply of sugar was estimated at 1.57 million tonnes this year, of which total demand would be 1.5 million tonnes, making a surplus of about 70,000 tonnes.

However, the surplus would be possibly much higher than the estimate because the annual volume of illegal import is very high, especially from Thailand. Meanwhile, the domestic refineries' production is much lower than local demand.

Source VNS