Từ khóa: #sugar industry

The anti-dumping tax on sugar is set to be applied soon which will help sugarcane businesses sell goods and make profits. 

Five months after the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) took effect, many agricultural export products increased in both volume and value. However, some key export products of Vietnam have not taken advantage of the EVFTA yet, such as cashew, honey, and sugarcane industries.

From 2020, Vietnam implements the ASEAN Trade in Goods Agreement (ATIGA) to reduce import tariffs on sugar. Domestic sugar refineries were happy that when the official import of sugar increases, they can compete and restrict smuggled sugar. However, the joy did not last long, imported sugar is cheaper than domestically-produced one, making many sugar refineries continue to suffer losses, and farmers stop growing sugarcane.

The Vietnam Sugarcane and Sugar Association (VSSA) informed that there is enough evidence of dumping of imported sugar in the Vietnamese market, causing dozens of sugar refineries to close or halt operation. In the coming time, there will be more sugar refineries to suffer the same situation.

Farmers in the Mekong Delta have started to harvest raw material sugarcane from the beginning of October. However, up to now, the remaining three factories in the region have not operated yet. Currently, farmers mainly sell sugarcane for traders to resell to sugarcane juice vendors. Ironically, both farmers who sell sugarcane early to benefit from high prices and those who have not harvested sugarcane yet want to give up sugarcane to switch to other crops.

Due to suspicion that liquid sugar products extracted from corn starch originating from China and South Korea showed signs of dumping in the Vietnamese market, the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) decided to investigate to impose anti-dumping duties to protect domestic enterprises.

As the selling prices of sugar are lower than cost prices while sugar inventory is high, sugar refineries are on the verge of suffering losses.