Long said that the reduction in the price of sugar in Vietnam is due to the disparity between supply and demand. The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) predicted that this year major suppliers as China, India and Indonesia would increase the nation's sugar supply, especially since, given this year's successful crop, India could produce 24 million tonnes of sugar for the global demand.
The International Sugar Organisation announced that there would be one to three million tonnes of excess sugar on the global market this year, if consumption stands at 152.04 million tonnes while the supply reaches 155.37 million tonnes.
Sugar importers Russia, Indonesia and Pakistan may cut their import volumes this year as domestic supplies increase. While east Asia' s demand may in crease 2.1% over last season's 54.9 million tonnes, the consumption will still be comparatively low, the FAO predicted.
This season, local sugar refiners produced 900,000 tonnes, which is enough for processing and storage, according to the Vietnam Sugar and Sugarcane Association.
Aside from fluctuations based on global market prices, domestic prices can't increase, as domestic producers are determined to compete with Thai sugar smuggled across the Vietnamese border.
"Reducing the price by 100-200 dong per kilogram is the only way to cope with the sugar smuggled from Thailand," Long said.
The decrease in the domestic market price led to reduced profits for farmers, with farmers this year only receiving 150,000 to 385,000 dong per tonne of sugarcane from sugar production enterprises.
According to Long, the sugar price will stand at 6,500 dong per kilogram through the end of this season and cannot rise again with Vietnamese enterprises reducing the price of their products to compete with smuggled sugar.