According to VSSA, the total sugar supply reached nearly 1.34 million tonnes in the past seven months, higher than 1.3 million for the whole year of 2023.
Provinces that grow sugarcane need to focus on improving added value and prices so that farmers are encouraged to keep growing it to develop Viet Nam’s sugar and sugarcane industry.
The sugar industry is facing many challenges and unfair competition from imported and smuggled goods, experts told a conference held in Ha Noi on Tuesday.
At the Cabinet meeting in Ha Noi, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development reported that the sugar and sugarcane industry are suffering numerous difficulties.
Viet Nam’s sugar industry is expected to face a great deal of difficulties as the country will tariffs on imported sugar from ASEAN under the ASEAN Trade in Goods Agreement (ATIGA) in 2020.
The domestic sugar industry should restructure all stages of its production process towards diversifying products to improve competitiveness, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.
Low consumption, high inventory and continuously plunging prices mean tough times for domestic sugar mills, said chairman of the Viet Nam Sugarcane and Sugar Association (VSSA) Pham Quoc Doanh.
The sugar industry needs to restructure to compete with rivals in other countries such as Thailand, according to the Viet Nam Sugar and Sugarcane Association.
The implementation of tariff reduction of zero per cent under the ASEAN Trade in Goods Agreement (ATIGA) from January 1, is an obsession with the Vietnamese sugar industry.