Industry Ministry to keep an eye on the global sugar price

BANGKOK, 2 Mar 2015, (NNT) - The Ministry of Industry and related agencies are keeping an eye on the global sugar price, as fear of a massive price drop grows.

The watch was triggered by a sugar price decrease of 13.79 cents per pound, as a result of the depreciation of the Brazilian Real currency which has negatively affected the sugar market price.

Industry Ministry officials fear that if Brazil’s average sugar price over a year, is lower than 18 cents per pound, then Thailand’s Sugarcane and Sugar Fund would take a direct hit in stabilizing the prices of sugarcane and sugar in this country during the 2014/2015 season.

The Government earlier urged rice farmers and rubber planters to switch to sugarcane and other crops while waiting for prices of those two important products to pick up. The move has significantly increased the number of sugarcane planters nationwide.

The officials stated it would be difficult to maintain the price of sugar given the aforementioned circumstances and the current weak state of the fund.

-- NNT 2015-03-02

"...then Thailand’s Sugarcane and Sugar Fund would take a direct hit in stabilizing the prices of sugarcane..."

"The Government earlier urged rice farmers and rubber planters to switch to sugarcane and other crops while waiting for prices of those two important products to pick up. The move has significantly increased the number of sugarcane planters nationwide."

LOL. Governments can neither predict or control world commodity prices and they sure as heck shouldn't tell people what to grow.

The rice scheme worked really well. Oh wait...

Well that's good news, the government has been telling farmers to grow sugar cane instead of rice so now we have a huge stock pile of rice and a lot of farmers switching to sugar cane with rock bottom prices for both, bringing back happiness to the people.

How sweet........hardly shattering news, more like someone pretending to be concerned!

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Sugar cane can easily be converted into gasohol and is the top crop in the world for making the conversion economically. Brazil is the world leader in this, Thailand also does the alcohol conversion. Unlike molding rice and deteriorating rubber in a warehouse there are good alternatives for sugar cane.

Most all developed and developing nations have support for their farmers. Sugarcane, if a nation has the capability to grow it is one of the best crops due to its versatility.

The only farm commodity in Thailand that continues to rise (that I'm aware of) is the price of beef, 340 baht a kilo on roadside in Issan. Most all commodities world wide are on a declining cycle.

In addition to commodities falling Thailand is close to deflation as stated in another thread today. Prices of most all goods are heading south.

And several years ago a government urged farmers to plant rubber trees as the price was high, even I understood subsidized them, now there is an oversupply and the price of rubber is way down.

Not so bad with sugar cane as it is an annual crop and after the crop is harvested farmers can change back to rice or something else, rubber on the other hand has a long run in time.

Round here few have planted cane with most of the paddy left to fallow till the rains come and another rice crop can be planted. Not the case in some places I have been around lately where I see new plantings of cane.

I do have to say however that most of the cane is grown on land unsuitable for rice and much is mixed with other crops such as cassava and pineapples and sometimes rubber plantations.

Hope the price doesn't drop for the cane harvest is underway at present and there are hundreds of grossly overloaded trucks waiting at the mills to unload and on the road to the mills with more fields still to be harvested.

This is supposed to be news ? commodities are on the way down, any fool can see that with oil prices so low and likely to be for a year or so at least. There is nothing they can do but go with the flow and adjust crops to suit.

Oh and its no ones fault, this is just what markets do.... fluctuate.

Sugar cane can easily be converted into gasohol and is the top crop in the world for making the conversion economically. Brazil is the world leader in this, Thailand also does the alcohol conversion. Unlike molding rice and deteriorating rubber in a warehouse there are good alternatives for sugar cane.

Most all developed and developing nations have support for their farmers. Sugarcane, if a nation has the capability to grow it is one of the best crops due to its versatility.

The only farm commodity in Thailand that continues to rise (that I'm aware of) is the price of beef, 340 baht a kilo on roadside in Issan. Most all commodities world wide are on a declining cycle.

In addition to commodities falling Thailand is close to deflation as stated in another thread today. Prices of most all goods are heading south.

I buy beef at our local market in Isan for 250/ kg and surprisingly, it's pretty good.

Sugar cane can easily be converted into gasohol and is the top crop in the world for making the conversion economically. Brazil is the world leader in this, Thailand also does the alcohol conversion. Unlike molding rice and deteriorating rubber in a warehouse there are good alternatives for sugar cane.

Most all developed and developing nations have support for their farmers. Sugarcane, if a nation has the capability to grow it is one of the best crops due to its versatility.

The only farm commodity in Thailand that continues to rise (that I'm aware of) is the price of beef, 340 baht a kilo on roadside in Issan. Most all commodities world wide are on a declining cycle.

In addition to commodities falling Thailand is close to deflation as stated in another thread today. Prices of most all goods are heading south.

Yeah Gasohol, we need a lot of that because oil is so expensive now.........oh wait...

LOL the folly of government central planning and the idiots who believe in it.

“Sugar cane growers and farmers in the Northeast are the happiest groups of agriculturalists, according to a recent survey by BAAC….The results suggested that over 80 percent of the farmers were quite happy with their lives.” 2015-01-09

Looks like their continued happiness will require more government subsidies (not to be confused with populist policies) as farmers have no control over world market prices.