Bright prospects ahead for sugar producers

The revenues from July 1, 2020 to June 30, 2021 of listed sugar firms rose on average 15.8 per cent, while profit figures shot up 80.8 per cent on-year.

In the first nine months of the new fiscal year 2021-2022, these listed firms saw revenues surging an average of 8.9 per cent and profit growth averaged 85.5 per cent.

Currently, Thanh Thanh Cong-Bien Hoa JSC (SBT) is Vietnam’s number-one producer of sugar and sugar products, holding about 46 per cent of the market share.

SBT is upscaling the value chain of its sugar products by providing the market with 73 product lines, including seven organic sugar products, 11 by-products and post-sugar product lines, and six drinks.

Phu Hung Securities JSC, with more than 66,000ha, accounts for 25 per cent of the country’s total material area.

The self-reliance on material sources amid a higher price tag helps the company to bolster its profit margin.

As for Son La Sugar JSC (SLS), the company’s major market is Hanoi, holding 75 per cent of its output. Its core business line – sugar processing and trading – accounts for 90.9 per cent of its total revenue in 2021.

Agribank Securities estimates that SLS’s material area in the 2021-2022 fiscal year hovers around 9,300ha, and SLS is the only listed sugar firm enjoying corporate income tax exemption.

Around 70 per cent of Lam Son Sugar JSC's (LSS) material areas are sparsely distributed in hilly land, making it hard to apply synchronous mechanisation. The company is set to bring the material areas to low-land regions.

At the time of being equitised in 2008, LSS owned a stable material growing region from 15,000-20,000ha.

Meanwhile, Kon Tum Sugar JSC's material area is at a medium size. The company eyed a 103 per cent jump in post-tax profit to reach $205,200 in the first nine months of the 2021-2022 fiscal year.

Generally, local sugar firms are deemed to have undergone the most challenging time due to rising sugar prices in the global markets, particularly those that are self-reliant like SBT.

So far in 2022, the sugar price rose more than 9 per cent to reach $19.44 per pound and shot up nearly 44 per cent compared to early 2021.

Mirae Asset Securities forecasts that the global sugar price would inch up 10-15 per cent this year compared to 2021.