Sugar price hike rally continues; sugarcane price surges to over K60,000 per tonne

Following the sugar price rally, the price of sugarcane jumped to over K60,000 per tonne, said the sugarcane growers from Htigyaing Township.
“This year, sugarcane fetches up to K60,000 per tonne. It was priced at only K43,000 per tonne last year. The sugarcane price has risen tracking the hike in sugar price. We delivered the sugarcane to the sugar mills in Htigyaing Township only,” said Daw Htway Yee, a sugarcane grower from Htigyaing Township.
Only 400,000 tonnes of sugarcane were produced across the country during the last sugarcane season, which is a drop of 100,000 tonnes as against the last year’s rate.
Winter sugarcane growing season started in October and will finish in May.
The cultivation cost per acre is about K600,000-700,000 and an acre produces about 30 tonnes of sugarcane.
There are about 65,850 sowing acres of sugarcane in Htigyaing Township. It is cultivated in Shwebo, Kanbalu and Katha districts.
Myanmar produced about 450,000 tonnes of sugar from 440,000 acres of sugarcane plantations in the 2014-2015 financial year, over 390,000 tonnes from 390,000 acres in the 2015-2016FY, over 370,000 tonnes from 400,000 acres in the 2016-2017FY, over 500,000 tonnes from 400,000 acres in the 2017-2018FY, and 500,000 tonnes from 500,000 acres in the 2018-2019FY.
Sugarcane prices were pegged at over K50,000 per tonne in the 2015-2016FY, K45,000 in the 2016-2017FY, K41,500 in the 2017-2018FY, K38,000-40,000 in the 2018-2019FY and K40,000 in the last FY2019-2020 according to the news released online by the Ministry of Commerce. — Lu Lay, KK/GNLM