Both productivity and sugar cane prices are increasing

Mr. Nguyen Van Minh, director of Phu Yen Plantation – Crop Protection Subdivision, said the province planted about 22,112 hectares in the 2022-2023 sugarcane crop year, an increase of about 740 hectares compared to last year’s harvest.

The reason for the increase in sugar cane acreage was that the sugar mills in the region purchased raw cane at a higher price in the past crop year than in the same period last year. In addition, the virus mosaic disease situation in cassava has led to a decline in yield and quality, so people have shifted some areas from cassava and acacia to sugarcane.

According to Mr. Nguyen Van Minh, farmers harvested almost 7,000 ha of sugar cane at the beginning of March with an average yield of 61 tons/ha. “Sugar cane yield in this crop is expected to increase over the same period last year because of people’s investment in and cultivation of sugar cane in the past. Also, the weather conditions in 2022 are relatively favorable for the growth and development of sugarcane,” Minh shared.

Note that we are in the sugar cane area in Son Hoa district (Phu Yen) and the farmers are currently busy harvesting. According to farmers, this year’s sugar cane yield is stable, many sugar cane fields give a fairly high average yield, about 65 tons/ha, but the first sugar of the crop is low, reaching about 10 CCS.

Mr. Ngo Van On’s family in Son Ha Municipality owns nearly 2 hectares of sugar cane, nearly 130 tons have been harvested this season. However, according to Mr On, his sugar cane field has low sugar levels (around 9 CCS) due to heavy rain. With this word sugar, he sells sugar cane at 920,000 VND/ton, after deducting costs for more than 60 million VND profit.

Currently, there are two sugar cane factories in Phu Yen Province, namely KCP Vietnam Industry Company Limited and Tuy Hoa Sugar Joint Stock Company, which are related to the consumption of products for sugar cane farmers.

Mr. Thai Van Hung, deputy general manager of Tuy Hoa Sugar Joint Stock Company, said the company has currently signed a farmer purchase agreement for more than 300,000 tons of sugar cane, covering about 5,500 hectares in Tay Hoa, Song Hinh and Son districts whoa From the start of harvest till now, the company has kept the purchase price of raw sugar cane in the field at VND 1.3 million/ton (10 CCS) including support and bonus expenses. Thus, the price of raw sugar cane increased by almost VND 200,000/ton compared to last year’s harvest.

As of March 6, the company had harvested sugar cane with a production of 130,000 tons. In this crop year, thanks to the favorable weather, the sugar cane yield is relatively high, averaging around 65 tons/ha.

“For the word sugar, it started moving up at that point. Because Phu Yen rains a lot this year and still rains, so many sugar cane fields have not been harvested yet, they have to wait for the fields to dry. But in general, given the current yield and purchase price of sugarcane according to the survey among the company’s employees, people are very excited because the harvest is quite profitable,” said Mr. Hung.

According to the Ministry of Cultivation – Plant Protection Phu Yen, the average investment in 1 ha of newly planted sugar cane in the 2022-2023 sugar cane harvest year is about VND 42 million, and the original cane is about VND 21.5 million. With the current sugar cane price and an average sugar cane yield of about 61 tons/ha after deducting costs, the farmers have a profit of 12-30 million VND/ha.

Continue introducing clean support for sugarcane farmers

In order for farmers to continue planting sugar cane with peace of mind, Tuy Hoa Sugar Joint Stock Company has issued a notice on guidelines to invest and support the development of sugar cane material areas in the 2023-2024 crop year.

Accordingly, the company will support farmers 100% in land preparation costs (from 5 to 6 million VND/ha) when they replant or replant sugar cane. In addition, the company also supports non-refundable interest on seeds, fertilizers, pesticides and investments in sugar cane irrigation systems. In addition, the company will purchase another 50,000 VND/ton of sugar cane for sugar cane fields to invest in irrigation water to encourage people to invest in increasing productivity and stick to sugar cane.

For the area planted with other crops, this crop will be converted into sugar cane, the company will support VND 1 million/ha to help farmers change the structure of crops.

Regarding the development orientation of sugar cane in the coming period, the director of the Plantation and Plant Protection Subdivision of Phu Yen said that he will integrate the planning of sugar cane material areas of sugar cane factories into the provincial planning for the period 2021 – 2030., Vision to 2050; At the same time, constantly developing the range of available raw materials and focusing on investing in and using technical advances and new varieties to increase productivity and sugar production.

At the same time, replicating models of water-saving irrigation, applying effective mechanization in sugar cane production used by the provincial agricultural advisory center in the communities, and applying advanced agricultural techniques; Introduction of new high-yielding and high-quality sugar cane varieties to develop raw material areas and widespread use of cultivation and pest control methods in the direction of integrated plant protection (IPM). Development and replication of models of rotation and intensive agriculture; Introducing mechanization in the production phases, progressively applying sustainable farming techniques and 4.0 technology in production to increase productivity and reduce sugar cane production costs…

Businesses continue to sign investment contracts and purchase raw sugar cane in accordance with Government Decree No. 98/2018/ND-CP; to strengthen the construction of concentrated and large-scale sugar cane intensification areas, synchronously apply mechanization to production to increase productivity and quality, and reduce sugar cane production costs. Strengthen investment promotion in road and irrigation system repair and renewal, especially in resource areas and related areas. There are measures to encourage farmers to effectively use the irrigation facilities invested in irrigating the cane material area, to avoid the situation where the irrigation facilities invested in irrigating the cane material area but actually planted trees.

In addition, sugar factories must restructure the sugar processing industry toward product diversification, form a product value chain to reduce production costs, reduce product costs and be competitive enough, and sugar price below VND 10,000/kg, and promote mechanization to reduce of work, especially in the harvest phase…

Mr. Nguyen Van Minh, director of the Cultivation-Plant Protection Subdivision of Phu Yen, said that in the coming period, the specialized agencies will strengthen the guidance, inspection and supervision of enterprises that purchase raw sugar cane data according to Circular 29 on the National Technical Regulation on the Quality of Raw Sugar Cane by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. The companies continue to carry out sourcing of raw materials and assessment of impurities according to the National Technical Regulation on the Quality of Raw Sugar Cane. Attention must be paid to the contamination of the raw sugar cane, which must be guaranteed to be less than or equal to 2%, the average word sugar of a number of raw cane lots ≥ 9CCS, the price calculation bracket for the purchase of raw sugar cane according to CCS must be appropriate.