Cane farmers call for help after sealing off Bisuco

Bisuco will be closed, to the distress of local farmers. Photo: thoibao.today

The Vinh Thanh People’s Committee in Binh Dinh province has just issued the document to propose An Khe Sugar Factory (Gia Lai province) to purchase local farmers’ raw sugarcanes before May 10 to ensure productivity and the safety of the next cane crop.

According to Le Van Dau, Chairman of the Vinh Thanh People’s Committee, there are 5,000 tonnes (90ha) of raw canes in the district. However, the sealing off of Binh Dinh Sugar JSC (Bisuco) will cause local cane farmers difficulties.

Previously, the Tay Son People’s Committee (also Binh Dinh) also issued documents to propose An Khe Sugar Factory to purchase local farmers’ raw canes from April 4 to April 30.

According to a representative of An Khe sugar factory, in Tay Son district alone there is 20,000 tonnes of cane. Nevertheless, the factory committed to buy up the farmers' canes in this May.

“The factory currently buys canes at the price of VND800,000 ($35.2) per tonne and provides VND200,000 ($8.8) per shipment as support with transportation fees for farmers. In the past days, due to the shortage of human resources, the factory only bought 400 tonnes of canes per day. In the next days, the factory will schedule reasonable input for production, ensuring that farmers produce will be taken up in May 2018,” said the representative.

Hundreds of hectares of cane are drying off as it is past harvest time. Photo: thoibao.today

Meanwhile, cane farmers are in distress because they have not been able to harvest their cane growing on hundreds of hectares, as there has been no uptake by the sugar factories, leading to the produce drying out and overall low productivity. Furthermore, farmers are also reduced prices to accommodate traders after Bisuco ceased operations.

“Last year, the price of cane reached VND900,000 ($39.6) per tonne, and after subtracting the transportation fees of VND200,000 ($8.8) per tonne, farmers were still profitable. This year, when Bisuco stopped working, farmers were forced to cut prices. Currently, traders require a price of VND400,000-500,000 ($17.6-22) per tonne, and transport fees also increased to VND250,000 ($11) per tonne. Thus, farmers lose VND200,000-300,000 per tonne,” said cane farmer Vo Dinh Xuan (Tay Giang district, Binh Dinh).