VN sugar production down 13%
Sugar output in the 2015-16 crop was 1.23 million tonnes, a year-on-year drop of 12.7 percent, said Phạm Quốc Doanh, Chairman of the Việt Nam Sugarcane and Sugar Association, at a seminar in HCM City last week of sugar producers, distributors and consumers. Together with 185,000 tonnes of imports, this fully met the domestic demand forecast by the Ministry of Industry and Trade, he said. Prices would not fluctuate much from now through the Lunar New Year on January 28, he said. Many sugar mills had signed long-term contracts with beverage production companies and fulfilled them. Sugar prices depend much on sugarcane prices and global sugar prices, but with production of six months supplying demand for the whole year, output and prices are often volatile, he said. Sugar traders and food and beverage producers dislike this volatility, he added.
