Vietnam's sugar output in the 2010/2011 crushing season jumped by a quarter from last year to 1.13 million tonnes, prompting market regulators to slow imports of the commodity in coming months, a state-run newspaper reported on Saturday. Vietnam, a tiny sugar producer by world standards, could face a surplus this year in line with global markets, as smuggling of Thai sugar has been rising while domestic prices are high, industry officials say.
Output this year rose 25.6 percent from nearly 900,000 tonnes in 2009/2010, Chairman Nguyen Thanh Long of the Vietnam Sugar and Cane Association was quoted by the Vietnam Economic Times newspaper as telling an industry meeting on Friday. Vietnam has so far this year imported 53,250 tonnes of sugar and would take delivery of another 70,000 tonnes under the 250,000-tonne quota granted by the Industry and Trade Ministry for 2011, the paper quoted a ministry official as saying.
The imported volume of 123,250 tonnes plus the current sugar stockpile of 615,709 tonnes would be sufficient to meet domestic demand by October when the new crushing season starts, Long said at the Friday meeting to review domestic production. The trade ministry has instructed sugar importers to slow the purchase of the remaining 126,750 tonnes under the 2011 quota, the newspaper reported without giving further details. Rabobank has projected a global sugar surplus of 5.7 million tonnes in 2011/12 and revised up its 2010/11 surplus estimate to almost 3 million tonnes.