Vietnamese sugar refineries have nearly ended their crushing season, turning out 1.12 million tonnes of sugar or 49 percent more than the previous season, state media reported on Wednesday.
The output from large-scale refiners plus 110,000 tonnes from smaller producers and stocks left from the October 2005 to May 2006 crushing season brought Vietnam's total sugar stocks to 1.5 million tonnes, industry figures showed.
Vietnam's 84 million people are forecast to consume a total of 1.37 million tonnes of sugar this year, or 6 percent more than in 2006, meaning Vietnam would not need to import sugar this year, the Dau Tu (Investment) newspaper said.
Domestic refiners have even exported 5,000 tonnes of refined sugar, one third of their export target for 2007, the Vietnam News Agency said without giving the import destinations.
Vietnam is not a key sugar buyer as its output of around 1 million tonnes in the past several years has broadly met demand, which has been growing 5.5 percent to 6 percent a year. Output is small compared with the 2.3 million tonnes produced in Indonesia, Southeast Asia's largest sugar buyer.
But customs and market inspectors' say they face a problem with cheap Thai sugar that is being smuggling via Cambodia into southern Vietnam, where most of the country's sugar is consumed. Seasonal flooding on the Mekong River has enabled the smuggling from July to September when Vietnam may face temporary sugar shortages before a new crushing season starts in October.
Retail prices have been stable at 7,500 dong (46 US cents) per kg of sugar in the Mekong delta bordering Cambodia in recent months, while the refined sugar is retailed in Ho Chi Minh City, the country's largest city, at 8,500 dong to 9,000 dong per kg. The government has targeted Vietnam's sugar output to rise to 1.5 million tonnes by 2010 and 2.1 million tonnes by 2020.
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