Saturday, 15 August 2015 12:16
HANOI: Vietnam will strive to raise its sugar output in the 2015/2016 cane crushing season by nearly 10 percent to 1.56 million tonnes, rebounding from a fall this year due to lower supply, a state-run newspaper reported on Saturday.
The Agriculture Ministry has requested sugar firms to support growers in planting and post-harvest processing to ensure higher sugar content recovery, the official Nhan Dan (People) newspaper cited a ministry plan as saying.
Vietnam, a small sugar producer with output equivalent to about a tenth of that of Thailand, refined 1.42 million tonnes in the 2014/2015 season ended in June, down 10.7 percent from a year earlier.
But the falling output is often offset by smuggled Thai sugar from Cambodia, and a price gap has also contributed to the illegal trade, according to industry reports.
Consumption has been rising in recent weeks as confectionery makers prepare for the mid-autumn festival that falls in late September.
