| AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS / SUGARCANE |
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| Thursday,August 23,2007 Posted: 18:03 BJT(03 GMT) |
| From:th Article type:Reproduced |
Cane output up, prices down
Sugarcane output for the 2007-08 harvest season is projected to grow by 6.25% from 64 million tonnes in the previous year to 68 million tonnes, says Chakramon Phasukvanich, the permanent secretary for the Industry Ministry. The projected production increase is due to increased rainfall and cultivation. The higher cane production would be processed into 6.8 million tonnes of sugar.
However, cane and sugar sales for the next harvest year continue to dwindle and will worsen the financial status of the state sugar fund.
The Industry Ministry may attempt to resolve the debt problem which now stands at 13 billion baht. An additional 10-billion-baht loan from the Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Co-operatives would be sought for the next two harvest years.
The International Sugar Organisation predicted the world sugar price slump would continue until 2008-09 due to production increases in many major exporting countries such as Brazil, Australia and Thailand and from new comers such as India and Russia. Sugar importing countries are reducing their purchases and some countries such as Vietnam have begun exporting their surpluses.
World supply for 2006-07 exceeded demand by 9.1 million tonnes, up from a 2.2 million tonne surplus for 2005-06.
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