Sugar prices on the rise and slack in market

Sugar prices were on the rise in the local market starting in mid-2021. The country produces about 500,000 tonnes of sugar per year and has a consumption rate of 450,000 tonnes, and exports a hundred thousand tonnes of sugar, Daw Nyo, a sugar dealer at the Bayintnaung market told the GNLM.
In 2016, the country re-exported the sugar to China through the Muse border, and the sugar prices were high at that time. However, the export was suspended in 2017 and resumed after three months before mid-2018.
The sugar was priced at K1,750 per viss in August 2010. The sugar merchants reaped healthy profits between 2010 and 2016, said sugar purchaser Ko Chit.
In 2020, it is about K900 per viss. In early 2021, it was K1,000 and rose to K1,500 and K2,000 per viss later. In 2022, the price is above K2,000 and has reached over K2,200 per viss since mid-June to date.
The country has about 440,000 acres of sugarcane plantation per year and nearly 20 sugar mills produce 500,000 tonnes of sugar per year. The sugar mills are run by the end of the year and operate four months a year.
When the sugar price is low, the sugarcane price is only K40,000 per tonne and it can fetch K80,000 per tonne this year.
Myanmar and Laos that export sugar to Viet Nam will be exempted from taxes. In the first four months of 2022, Myanmar exported 40,000 tonnes of sugar to Viet Nam.
In 2020, the sugar price was K500 lower than the jaggery price and jaggery mixed with sugar was sold in the market. The sugar mills will be operated soon and the stockpiled sugar will be sold at lower prices before that operation, said purchaser Ko Myo. — TWA/GNLM