In recent years, the area of sugarcane area has continuously decreased, causing sugar factories to face the risk of material shortage.
In recent years, the area of sugarcane area has continuously decreased, causing sugar factories to face the risk of material shortage. In order to stabilize production in the long term, Vietsugar (Vietnam Sugar Joint Stock Company) has launched many policies to develop, expand and improve the productivity of the sugarcane area.
A series of support policies
For many consecutive years, the low price of sugarcane and the prolonged drought caused the raw material area of Vietsugar todecrease continuously. In the 2020 - 2021 production year, the sugarcane material area purchased by the company was only 4,900ha, of which 3,900ha was invested by the company and insured the purchase price. Meanwhile, Vietsugar's factory currently had a capacity of 8,000 tons of sugarcane per day. With this capacity, each crop year needed about 600,000 - 700,000 tons of raw sugarcane, equivalent to about 12,000ha of sugarcane. Therefore, the company has determined that the restoration and expansion of the raw material area is a vital task in the company's business strategy. According to the plan, in the 2021 - 2022 crop year, Vietsugar will develop a raw material area to 5,200ha of sugarcane and expect the total purchasing output to reach more than 300 thousand tons.
Le Van Hong - Development Director of Vietsugar Raw Material Area said that the decline in raw material area has seriously affected Vietsugar in particular and sugar factories in the South Central region in general. In order to ensure the sugarcane for the factory to operate, the company has made efforts to come up with many solutions to develop the raw material area, including re-planning key sugarcane-growing areas, and prioritizing investment in restoring sugarcane material areas in Khanh Hoa province, especially areas with active irrigation. At the same time, Vietsugar has strengthened technical support for sugarcane growers, through cooperation with domestic and foreign experts.
Vietsugar is also promoting a policy for pour capital for new sugarcane growers. The company will commit to buy 100% of the sugarcane output of the people who signed a contract with the company. In the 2020 - 2021 crop year, despite the minimum purchase price of sugarcane is 850,000 VND/ton, but based on the market, the company purchased at 1 million VND/ton sugarcane, an increase of 150,000 VND/ton compared to the previous crop year. From the 2019 - 2020 crop year to now, sugarcane growers near the factory supported of 25,000 VND/ton of sugarcane. In the crop year 2021 - 2022, Vietsugar continues to support sugarcane growing households on reclaimed land or from land converted to other crops.
Initial effects
With a series of support policies for sugarcane growers, the 2020 - 2021 crop year has received initial results. The increase in the sugarcane purchasing price and the increase in productivity makes people feel secure to cultivate. Le Dinh Ut (in Cam Hiep Nam commune, Cam Lam district) said that his family has 10ha of sugarcane. Thanks to Vietsugar's support policy, the sugarcane area is invested with an irrigation system with a yield of 60-70 tons/ha. “With the current selling price of sugarcane at 1 million VND/ton for Vietsugar (160,000 VND/ton higher than the previous crop), my family's profit is about 20 million VND per hectare. With such output and prices like this, people will surely return to sugarcane," Ut shared.
Similarly, the family of Nguyen Tan Nhut (in Ninh Quang commune, Ninh Hoa town) has also received many support policies from Vietsugar to mechanize production materials and watering systems, dig 4 ponds to proactively source water for sugarcane irrigation in the dry season. With 40.67ha of sugarcane, last year the family harvested more than 2,000 tons and sold it to the sugar factory. “Thanks to selling sugarcane for 1 million VND/ton, my family has made a good profit. In the coming years, if the price of sugarcane is maintained at this level, we will feel secure when growing sugarcane," said Nhut.
Ho Nhan - General Director of Vietsugar said that Vietsugar's strategy to develop the sugarcane material area was planned, basing on the success and experience of Vinamilk (Vietsugar's main shareholder) in the development of cow breeding areas. There have been some positive signs initially, but this is just the beginning. In the long term, along with the above policies, Vietsugar will carry out training programs on sugarcane cultivation techniques as well as workshops on testing new sugarcane varieties. In 2021, the company will cooperate with a Japanese corporation to conduct pilot trials in sugarcane material areas. The goal is to find out suitable and advanced farming processes and measures to provide nutrients for sugarcane on each material area; support, connect and introduce to farmers advanced sugarcane growing models with high yield and quality, and reduce the cost of growing sugarcane in order to have high profits. In addition, the company will also invest in agricultural machinery and equipment in order to apply mechanization in the stages of sugarcane planting and care in order to gradually replace the manual method of growing sugarcane, avoiding dependence on human resources.
Nhat Minh
Translated by T.T
