Tay Ninh boosts sugarcane cultivation in Cambodia
By Hong Ngoc - The Saigon Times Daily
HCMC – Bourbon Tay Ninh and Bien Hoa Tay Ninh sugar plants in Tay Ninh Province have set aside over VND110 billion to grow over 3,500 hectares of sugarcane in the 2012-2013 crop in Cambodia’s Svay Rieng Province.
The sugarcane farming by these two plants is part of the cooperation program between the provincial governments of Tay Ninh and Svay Rieng signed last September, after a long time sugar plants in Tay Ninh importing the material from Cambodia.
Svay Rieng Province can provide 4,000-5,000 hectares for sugarcane farming, but its irrigation and transport systems are still underdeveloped. Therefore, sugar plants in Tay Ninh plan to develop the irrigation system there.
Tay Ninh is the largest sugarcane farming and sugar production area in Vietnam with three sugar plants of Bourbon Tay Ninh Co., Tay Ninh Sugar Co. and Bien Hoa Sugar Co. The three plants have a total designed processing capacity of 12,500 tons of sugarcane per day.
However, Tay Ninh Province is facing a material shortage as the sugarcane farming area in the province is only around 26,000 hectares which can provide some 1.5-1.6 million tons. Besides, the sugarcane farming area may decline due to competition from rubber and cassava.
The province’s target of increasing the sugarcane area to 37,000 hectares is hard to be achieved due to the low economic efficiency of sugarcane and farming land competition of other crops.
Therefore, Bien Hoa Sugar Co., owner of Bien Hoa Tay Ninh Sugar Plant, has plans to move its sugar plant from Tay Ninh to Svay Rieng to make the full use of the plant’s capacity.
Before 2008, sugarcane imported from Cambodia was subject to an import tax rate of 10% and a value-added tax rate of 5%. Currently, given the import tax of 0%, some sugar plants in Tay Ninh have rented lands in Cambodia or bought sugarcane from Cambodian traders.