Over the past few days, farmer Nguyen Van Buoi, 55 years old, in Tan Phuoc Hung commune, Phung Hiep district, has been very worried because sugarcane prices have dropped rapidly, but traders are still haggling and refusing to buy.

"In mid-October, traders came to the fields to deposit money to buy sugarcane (to make soft drinks) at a price of 2,300-2,500 VND per kilogram, but now it is only 1,100-1,200 VND per kilogram. Meanwhile, some traders buy raw sugarcane to sell to sugar factories in Tra Vinh for 900-1,000 VND per kilogram, depending on the sugar content (an index that determines the quality of sugarcane)," said Mr. Buoi, adding that his family still has 0.5 hectares of sugarcane that have not been harvested, with a yield of about 60 tons. At the current price, he loses more than one million VND in profit per ton of sugarcane.

Many farmers in Phung Hiep district reported that for sugarcane fields that had previously been deposited at high prices, traders haggled and demanded a price reduction before harvesting, otherwise they would forfeit their deposits (10-20 million for 50-100 tons of output). In some cases, drivers sent people into farmers' sugarcane fields to harvest a portion and then abandon the harvest. After that, it was difficult for these sugarcane fields to find buyers, forcing farmers to lower prices.

Mr. Tran Van Tuan, Head of the Department of Agriculture of Phung Hiep district, Hau Giang province, said that in the 2024 crop year, the locality will have 3,100 hectares of sugarcane land (nearly 3 times less than 4 years ago), the largest in the West.

"Currently, the locality still has nearly 1,000 hectares of sugarcane that have not been harvested, the price is falling sharply, and people are losing big profits," said Mr. Tuan, adding that traders have simultaneously forced down the sugar factory in Phung Hiep (the largest in the West) with a capacity of 2,500 tons per day to temporarily suspend operations for the 2023-2024 crop year, starting October 25.

In 2010-2011, Hau Giang province had the largest sugarcane area in the West with 15,000-16,000 hectares, mainly concentrated in Phung Hiep district and Vi Thanh city. The province has 3 large sugar factories operating at peak times in Long My town, Vi Thanh city and Nga Bay city.

In the following years, sugarcane prices were low, farmers’ incomes were unstable, and the area under this crop gradually decreased. Currently, all three sugar factories have stopped operating due to a shortage of raw materials.

The West had more than 50,000 hectares of sugarcane land in 2010, but now there are only about 15,000-16,000 hectares of this crop. The whole region has gone from having 10 sugar factories in operation to now having only 2 factories in Tra Vinh and Soc Trang.

An Binh