China needs to set up its own sugar security reserve because the
nation's limited sugar-bearing areas do not match its growing sweet
demands, market analysts and officials said.
Sugar consumption in this world's most populous market is
expected to outreach 11.8 million tons in 2005, according to the
China Sugar Association and industry forecast agencies, which means
more than one million tons of sugar need to be imported this
year to fill the insufficient domestic supply.
A security reserve of the sweet material is therefore needed to
avoid major market fluctuations and prevent prices from running out
of control in the future as the domestic sugar supply is expected
to remain deficient in the long run, market analysts said.
A fast expanding economy, a booming food processing industry and
a change in consumption structure are three factors that drive up
the sugar consumption in the country, said Ma Zhanping, deputy
director with the Economy, Trade and Circulation Department of
National Development and Reform Commission.
China is now the world's fourth largest sugar producer, only
after Brazil, India, and European Union, and the world's fifth
largest consumer after India, the EU, Brazil and the United
States.
Customs statistics show that China has imported 579,300 tons of
sugar during the first nine months of 2005, making it inevitable to
become a huge sugar importer this year.
China's drastically rising appetite for sugar was mainly fueled
by its flourishing food processing industry which now has an annual
growth rate of between 10 and 12 percent, said Jia Zhiren,
secretary-general of China Sugar Association.
Jia said the demand for sugar by the food baking companies in
2005 would maintain a growth rate between 7 to 8 percent while the
dairy products will pick up a pace of between 10 and 15
percent.
Beginning in 2004, the domestic sugar supply in China has run
short of more than 1.3 million tons and it is impossible for its
sugar output, consisting of beet sugar and crane sugar, to exceed
13 million tons given its limited planting areas, said Lin
Weimin,vice president of a sugar company in southwest China's Guangxi
Zhuang Autonomous Region.
Sugar cane is planted in three low-latitude provinces and
autonomous region including Guangxi, Yunnan
and Guangdong
while sugar beet is mainly sown in three northeastern provinces and
northwest Xinjiang
Uygur Autonomous Region.
"Unless there is major technological breakthrough, the ceiling
for China's sugar output will remain at 13 million tons every
year," Lin said, "And it is an optimistic estimation because
peasants in these areas are also lured to plant other crops with
greater economic revenue."
(Xinhua News Agency October 16, 2005)