Sugar exports to be monitored closely

HA NOI — The Government has not banned the export of sugar via international and main border gates, but it will closely control the exports via auxiliary border gates, an official of the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) has said.

Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Thanh Bien said sugar was one of the essential goods that needed a balanced supply and demand to stabilise the market. Therefore, exports through auxiliary border gates and border gates located outside key economic zones would be tightly managed under existing trade policies.

Last year, the Government permitted the export of sugar via auxiliary border gates and after seven months, the exports reached 200,000 tonnes.

As a consequence, by the end of last year domestic producers felt a high demand on sugar but lacked sugar for production.

According to the MoIT's Import and Export Department, the ministry would work with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) to have a reasonable management system for sugar trading based on market development and the domestic balance between supply and demand. In this way, producers and traders would see more favourable conditions on sugar and sugarcane.

MARD said this year, total supply of sugar was expected to reach 1.57 million tonnes, 250,000 tonnes higher than last year. The domestic demand is estimated to stand at 1.4 million tonnes. The smuggled volume of sugar into Viet Nam is also predicted to be high, causing sugar factories to have a huge inventory.

Therefore, MARD proposed the MoIT permit exports of 100,000-150,000 tonnes of sugar to help the factories collect capital for production.

The import and export department said the problem was not in permitting exports or not. The importance lies in a good forecast of supply and demand to make reasonable decisions for stabilising the domestic sugar market.

The sugar industry should have efficient management measures to ensure the interests of all farmers and consumers as well as businesses, the department said.

source: vietnamnews