Sugarcane "has a major operation" itself

According to sugarcane specialists, TPP countries’ sugar product demand is up to 9 million tons/year, so export opportunity to Viet Nam sugarcane industry in this block is very large..

Viet Nam sugarcane is underdeveloped in both seed and farming technique so in the thought of most people, “the door” of this industry is very narrow when Viet Nam integrates into TPP because sugarcane “huge persons” in the region are present here. However, the fact is not like that......

Investing hundreds of billion dong to farmers

The Sugar Factory of Thanh Thanh Cong Tay Ninh Sugarcane Joint Stock (TTCS) which is located in the area of Tan Hung Commune (Tan Chau, Tay Ninh) is officially in new harvest from about 1 month. Each sugarcane fleet transports sugarcane into the factory. Mr Tran Thanh Thao (Dong Thoi Commune, Chau Thanh District, Tay Ninh) said: “this year investment expense increases but the factory also purchases sugarcane with the price of about 100,000 dong/tons against previous year so the income is stable”.

Mr Thao grows 20 sugarcane ha in the contract with the factory. In addition to monopoly sales with stable price, soon from the beginning, the factory supports capital, technique, fertilizer, mechanization… “I and the factory has cooperated in this manner from many years so I feel secure in production”, said Thao. Mr Dang Van Hung (Thanh Xuan Hamlet, Mo Cong Commune, Tan Bien District, Tay Ninh) sitting close to him commenced: “Sugarcane profit í not high like other plants. But, with the experience of growing several plants over tends of years, I see if the contract of monopoly sales is obtained, sugarcane is a plant that has stable income. Each year I get the profit of about 1 billion dong per 30 ha”. In new crop, Mr Hung decides to hire additional 10 ha land for extension. “In fact, in Tay Ninh currently, it is a normal thing if a household grows 30-40 ha. Some persons grow up to hundreds of hectares. The reason they can be brave to grow in large volume is that they are supported the input, monopoly sales to the output by the factory. From growing to harvest, it is about 10-12 months for sugarcane growth subject to seed. As a result, the largest pressure for farmers is money cycle. Capital support from the factory will help farmers reduce this pressure”, admitted Mr Hung

According to Mr Nguyen Viet Hung, Deputy Director of TTCS, many countries are reduced sugarcane area due to the difficulty of water source. Therefore, the world sugar price has increased trend in the next time. This is one of the factors the company has decided to invest, enlarge the area, conduct the contact of monopoly sales with farmers. In new crop year, the company will extend investment area to farmers from 11,800 ha to 13,000 ha. “We supports the people from seed, technique, fertilizer, capital, irrigation system, mechanization, electric network for pump and irrigation…Furthermore, it also has unredeemable support policy relative to 13 million dong/ha and loans so that farmers invest in care, fertilizer. Loans will be deducted in the end of harvest crop. In the last year, investment expense to the company’s material area is up to 350 billion dong, in particular, unredeemable investment expense for about 3,000 ha of new sugarcane area is more than 30 billion dong”.

Catching big opportunities

For the reason of strong investment, according to the analysis from Mr Nguyen Thanh Ngu, General Director of TTCS, Viet Nam sugar-cane industry is too underdeveloped but not only about the competition when Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) comes into effect. Because, in TTP, Australia is a country that has the largest sugar industry and the world third largest sugar export country. However, Viet Nam is not their target export market. According to negotiation result, tax rate to sugar industry only descends towards 0% within 11 floowing years since TPP is effective. “Therefore, we have still enough time to invest, develop sugarcane industry towards modernization”, believed Mr Ngu.

To persuade that Viet Nam has still the opportunity to develop sugar cane industry, TTCS leadership has instructed us to visit the company’s material area. Thanh Long farm is a sugarcane field with the area of up to 1,000 ha divided into many small lots in which each lot is 40 ha. In each such lot, it is divided into 4 cells, each cell is 10 ha. Mr Pham Tan Chau, Technical Deputy Director in the farm, said that such planning is to facilitate the care. Overall production procedure of the farm is mechanized. Center Pivot irrigation system is compared with a huge iron arm with 500 m length to water 80 sugarcane ha during 20 hours. “Now the farm has 3 such watering girders and is installing further 4 girders. This is a modern technology imported from America with investment expense of about 4 billion dong/girder. Cultivation, harvest stages are mechanized. In harvest stage, with 2 machines, each machine needs 3 labors, 2 fuel liters to harvest 35 tons/day. While in manual harvest, one person can only harvest 1 ton/day”, determined Mr Tan. “Synchronous mechanization plus research investment on seed, technical procedure help average farm sugarcane productivity reach 80 tons/ha, in particularly, up to 100-110 tons/ha in some lots. Specially, it helps us save a huge expense”..

According to sugarcane specialists, TPP countries’ sugar product demand acquires 9 million tons/year so export opportunity to Vietnam sugarcane into this block is very big. Professor Vo Tong Xuan judged: “In TPP, America is a country that has great sugar import demand and their local sugar value is very high. Therefore, thinking sugar export after signing TPP integration has the basis theoretically. Currently, some enterprises see this opportunity and they have invested methodically to overcome objective challenges. “For enterprises are brave to invest sugarcane in some recent years, up to now, they have high-quality seed, modern technique, mechanization and had deployed the application successfully. With such methodical investment, I believe that in about 2 next years, Viet Nam sugar productivity, quality will be equal to Thailand sugar – one powerful country in this field”, said Prof. Xuan. Assoc. Prof. PhD Nguyen Van Ngai, Dean of Economics Department of Nong Lam University – HO Chi Minh City judged: “It is true that Viet Nam sugarcane industry will face a lot of difficulties, thus, we must acknowledge this fact. However, this is also an opportunity so that we “have a major operation” to develop towards modernization”. .

And in fact, a number of enterprises are in major operation themselves to catch up a big opportunity in TPP.

Source: Thanh Nien News