The sugarcane sector will focus on building commercial material growing areas of high yield and quality, renewing technology and restructuring sugar mills and companies with the aim of reducing production costs and gradually integrating into the world economy.

The goal was set at a conference in Hanoi on June 16 to review the sugarcane production in the 2006-2007 crop and map out the sector’s development tasks for the next crops.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), sugar production and sales in the 2006-2007 crop were comparatively stable, and thanks to abundant supplies of materials, production capacity of many sugar mills reached 94 percent. In addition, sugar mills cooperated well in stabilising the market and preventing illegal imports.

However, many localities developed the material growing areas in a spontaneous way, causing difficulties for sugar mills.

A MARD report showed that in the 2006-2007 crop, the acreage under sugarcane cultivation rose to 310,000ha, yielding a total output of 17 million tonnes, a year-on-year increase of 7.6 percent and 30 percent, respectively.

According to economists, sugarcane is among low-competitive products during the international economic integration and the sector will focus on production for local consumption from now till 2010.

The Prime Minister has approved the sugarcane development scheme till 2010 and vision for 2020, under which the current sugarcane acreage will remain unchanged and no new sugar mills will be built as existing mills can meet local demands.

Source: VOV