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Bangkok Post
Bangkok Post
Business

Sugar cane output sees hike

A farmer harvests his crop of sugar cane.

Thai sugar cane output for the 2021-22 crop year is expected to rise to 92 million tonnes, up from 66.6 million tonnes in the previous crop year, as rain brought higher crop yields, says the Federation of Thai Industries (FTI).

The amount can be used to make up to 10-10.5 million tonnes of sugar.

"One tonne of sugar cane can make around 110kg of sugar. This also shows sugar cane is of good quality," Chalush Chinthammit, chairman of the FTI's Sugar Industry Club, said.

Crushed sugar cane has a commercial cane sugar (CCS) sweetness level of 12.7 as farmers supplied fresh sugar cane to factories, he said.

Authorities have urged farmers to harvest sugar cane without burning, which is less time consuming and makes harvesting easier, but it is blamed for polluting the air with PM2.5 ultra-fine dust.

In the 2021-22 crop year, up to 72.7% is fresh sugar cane, with the remainder coming from the burning method.

Since December last year, 57 sugar factories have begun to receive sugar cane from farmers. They expect to stop the sugar cane crushing process for this crop year within this month.

Korach Industry bought most of the sugar cane, followed by Thai Roong Ruang Industry, United Farmer and Industry, Mitrphol and Kaset Thai International Sugar Corporation, according to the club.

In the 2022-23 crop year, sugar cane output is expected to keep increasing to 110 million tonnes as the rainy season has come earlier, the club said.

However, problems including higher labour costs as well as the hike in oil and fertiliser prices as a result of the Russia-Ukraine war will cause a major hindrance to farmers.

The 2022-23 crop year may be a hard time for local sugar cane farmers because the war seems unlikely to end soon, putting pressure on the prices of fertiliser and certain chemical products, said Narathip Anantasuk, head of the National Federation of Sugarcane Planters and head of the Office of Sugarcane Planter Association Zone 7.

"We still expect sugar cane output to reach 100 million tonnes in the full crop year of 2022-23," he said.

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