Thailand, the world's second-biggest sugar exporter, shipped a record 6.68 million tonnes of the sweetener in 2011, up 51 percent from the previous year due to a bumper crop and strong demand, a senior official said on Tuesday.
"Luckily, we had plenty of sugar last year and I expect that our exports could hit a record again in 2012 because demand remains strong," Prasert Tapaneeyangkul, secretary-general of the Office of Cane and Sugar Board (OCSB), told Reuters. The Southeast Asian country shipped only 4.42 million tonnes in 2010, when the authorities bought back 100,000 tonnes of sugar from international trading houses for the first time to satisfy rising domestic demand.
Thailand's major buyers in 2011 were Indonesia, Japan and South Korea, which imported 1.3 million, 1.1 million and 508,000 tonnes respectively, according to the OCSB's data.
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