Sugar prices in the Yangon market is cool in July and prices on 25 July remained unchanged as those on 24 July. The prices rose K50 per viss and it became K3,350 per viss while K3,400 for fixed jaggery and K3,500 for normal jaggery, purchaser Ko Aung told The Global New Light of Myanmar (GNLM).
On 29 May, the sugar price reached K3,280-3,320 per viss and it dropped again. On 5 June, it was K3250-3300 per viss and K3,230-3,270 between 30 June and 23 July.
Although the wholesale price was set at K3,270 per viss, the Htatesa is K3,300 per viss and K3,270 per viss for ones that contain a little moisture, said a sugar miller from the Aungthapyae road of Bayintnaung.
The sugar price is cool for nearly the whole month and it rose again like the prices of onion, palm oil and rice in the Yangon market on 24 July.
The sugar was permitted to be re-exported to China via land borders in 2016. At that time, the sugar wholesale price rose to K1,600 per viss and K1,500 in 2017.
After such operation was suspended, about four million bags of sugar and rice exported by various countries were stacked at the border areas in 2019, the media reported.
The sugar prices fell in 2019 and 2020 and bounced again in 2022 and it reached K3,350 per viss in mid-2023.
While the sugar price was high, the sugarcane was priced at K40,000 per tonne and reached about K90,000 per tonne by the end of 2022.
The local sugar consumption rate is about 450,000 per year and the local production rate is about 500,000 tonnes a year. It also exported 50,000 tonnes of sugar surplus. The international sugar price was $600 per tonne in 2022 while $700 in June 2023 and $650 during this month.
India’s sugar production is estimated up to 36 million tonnes in the 2023-2024 marketing year and domestic sugar consumption is estimated at around 27.5 million tonnes.
There are about 20 sugar mills in the country and the sugar brands produced from the sugar mills of northern Shan State occupied the first place in the market. The Yangon market sets sugar prices depending on the prices of the Mandalay sugar market.
Farmers earn higher incomes as the prices of rice, cooking oil, onion, garlic, tomato, sugar and beans and pulses rose in 2022 and 2023. – TWA/ KTZH
