Sugar price persists rise amid domestic milling season

Domestic sugar mills usually start running at the end of the year — November and December — and have a clearance sale to get rid of their old sugar stocks. Thus, the sugar price usually slumps in the domestic sugar market.
However, the wholesale sugar is still high price at around K2,500 per viss (a viss equals 1.6 kilogrammes) in November and December 2022, the GNLM quoted a sugar and jaggery seller, Daw Shan Ma, on Aungthapyae street in the Bayintnaung Market.
The popular sugar brand from northern Shan ern State was priced at K2,500-K2,520 per viss and other brands at K2,480 per viss, at the Yangon Market on 2 December 2022. Sugar produced from sugar mills in the Bago region had brisk sales around 2015, whereas the current price only hit K2,400-K2,430 per viss.
One of the sugar brands in the Yangon market printed three production dates on their products clearly and fetched the average price of around K2,300 per viss.
The Mandalay sugar market listed that the price of sugar per viss is K2,420. Thus, the sugar price in Yangon reached K2,500 per viss including the freight charge. The retail price of sugar (white and brown) at the shopping centres was K950 per 400-gramme bag, a customer stated.
The sugar price had risen in the domestic market in October 2010, 2016 and 2017, and dropped back to below K1,000 per viss in 2014, 2018 and 2019. The price of sugar soared again around mid-2021 and hit the highest rate of the sugar market in 2022 with K2,550 per viss. As the sugar price was high, some mills purchased sugarcane at a high price.
Domestic usage for sugar has around 450,000 tonnes per year. External trade has been done since around 500,000 tonnes of sugar are produced each year. Although the price of sugar stood up, the jaggery price is falling. On 2 December 2022, wholesale prices of NyaungU jaggery with additives, jaggery from the Mahlaing area, raw jaggery from Pakokku and bleached jaggery from Yesakyo fetched K3,300, K2,900, K3,250 and K3,200-K3,700 per viss respectively. — TWA/CT