Sugar price hits new peak despite fall in jaggery price

The prices of dry groceries will be inflated in early 2023 in Yangon markets and sugar is among those commodities. Meanwhile, jaggery prices declined, Ko Phyo, a trader who sends goods to regions outside Yangon, told the Global New Light of Myanmar (GNLM).
The domestic sugar mills will run until April 2023. However, the price hit a fresh new peak. The price rose to K2,700-2,750 per viss on 26 January 2023.
Nonetheless, jaggery prices moved in the range between K2,500 and K3,200 per viss depending on producing areas and quality. The prices reached a record high of K3,700 per viss produced from NyaungU and K3,750 per viss from the Yesagyo area in 2022.
Although sugarcane production rate and sugar outputs go regular, sugar is exported to foreign markets beyond self-sufficiency. The demand of those exporters elevated sugar prices. The prevailing price might be the lowest rate in 2023, a sugar trader shared his opinion with the GNLM.
There are around 450,000 sugarcane acres every year in Myanmar, with estimated sugar production of 500,000 tonnes. The annual domestic consumption is about 450,000 tonnes. The remaining was sent to the foreign market in 2022. This year, it will be exported to external markets as well.
A lack of old sugar stocks pushed up the sugar price in 2023, a buyer pointed out.
When new sugar is supplied to the domestic market, the price is rapidly going up. Nevertheless, the jaggery price dipped when the new jaggery season was approaching.
Sugar price was below K1,000 per viss in mid-2019 amid the bulk supply of locally produced sugar and a large volume of imported sugar.
Approximately 600,000 tonnes of sugar illegally imported from the Myawady border and sugar that were brought from Brazil, Thailand, India and other countries for re-export were stranded in the country after re-export was banned. — TWA/EMM