The Vietnam Sugar and Sugarcane
Association has asked the Government to strengthen measures to prevent
sugar smuggling and allow the export of locally produced product.
Nguyen Hai, the association’s general secretary, said sugar output had reached 1.53 million tonnes in the 2012-13 crop.
With 178,000 tonnes in stock since the beginning crop and 70,000
tonnes imported under Vietnam’s World Trade Organisation commitments,
the country has a total supply of 1.78 million tonnes.
However, he said, locally produced sugar cannot compete with the prices of smuggled one.
Speaking at a recent conference in Ho Chi Minh City, Nguyen Hai said a
large volume of sugar smuggled in the country via the southwest border
in An Giang Province, which has put even more pressure on the industry.
Although domestic sugar producers have slashed prices, they are still high compared to smuggled sugar.
The association has submitted a proposal to the Ministry of Industry
and Trade (MoIT) to seek approval for export of 300,000 tonnes of sugar
via border trade.
The ministry has allowed enterprises to
export 200,000 tonnes of sugar but only for residual sugar, not refined
sugar, because of a possible imbalance of supply of locally refined
sugar.
Nguyen Thanh Long, the association’s chairman, proposed
that the Government strictly inspect the temporary import and re-export
of sugar and adopt more effective measures to prevent sugar from being
smuggled in the country.
In the long term, he said the
Government should develop policies for the sugar industry with
consistent regulations on import and export to support and protect local
farmers and the sugar industry.
He also urged local producers to focus more on reducing production costs to raise their competitiveness.-VNA