Hundreds of hectares of sugarcane in the northern province of Tuyen Quang are dying due to prolonged drought
According to the Son Duong Sugar and Sugarcane Company, the prolonged drought this year has badly affected the development of their 320 hectares of newly-planted sugarcane, with nearly 300 hectares of the crop having died.
While between 50-90 percent of the trees have died right after being planted, the rest are facing poor development which will badly affect their quality, the company said. "We're replanting the crops but the on-going drought is still making them difficult to grow properly. We're going to face shortages of materials for sugar production this year."
Deputy general director of Son Duong Sugar and Sugarcane Company, Nguy Nhu Tien Dung, said that they've had to spend lots of money on buying young sugarcane to replace the dead ones.
"However, we've only been able to replant some 200 hectares and have left the remaining 100 hectares abandoned this year due to a lack of young trees and time," Dung said. "As such, we're going to see a decrease of some 6,000 tonnes of sugarcane for production this year. Meanwhile, the output this year is also predicted to fall by 30 percent compared to last year's."
According to the company's leader, this year, Son Duong Sugar and Sugarcane Company targeted to have an output of 100,000 tonnes of sugarcane from their 1,900 hectares of crops. However, the unfavourable weather may lead to an output drop to just 70,000 tonnes, which means that the company will accumulate some VND20 billion in losses.
