CNI News

20 August 2022

Although sugar to be exported from Myanmar to Vietnam has been exempted from tariffs, it is necessary to prove that the exported sugar was produced from sugar cane grown in Myanmar or the country of origin, according to the Myanmar Sugar and Cane Related Products Association.

The requirements have offered an opportunity for local sugar merchants and enhance their competitiveness, Vice Chairman U Win Htay of the association told the CNI.

He said, “We are not comparing advantages and disadvantages. It is an opportunity for us to export sugar to Vietnam. Therefore, it is necessary for us to use the opportunity in a correct manner. We cannot export sugar from Thailand or India to Vietnam by changing packages. So, it has enhanced the competitiveness of local merchants.”

Although Vietnam has exempted sugar from Southeast Asian countries except Thailand from tariffs, it has imposed 47 percent tariffs on sugar produced in the kingdom. Therefore, Thai sugar merchants evaded the taxes by exporting sugar through a third country, according to exporters.

  A worker carrying sugar cane. (EPA)

As Myanmar sugar merchants also used to reexport sugar from Thailand and India to Vietnam when sugar prices rose due to the growing demand, Vietnam authorities had to impose the requirements for the country of origin.
“There arose a dispute last year when a Myanmar company exported sugar imported from Thailand to Vietnam. So, authorities imposed the requirements to prove the country of origin and import sugar from exporters who can prove this” he told the CNI.

Imposing such requirements is beneficial for local sugar cane farmers and sugar mills and can increase the sugar cane acreage, U Maung Swe, a sugar cane farmer from Sagaing Region, told the CNI.

“It is beneficial for farmers as well as sugar mills. If we can export sugar produced from sugar cane grown in Myanmar, all farmers will expand sugar cane cultivation competitively,” he said.

So far, three Myanmar companies have exported 40,000 tons of sugar to Vietnam. As Myanmar exported 100,000 tons of sugar to Vietnam last year, sugar exports to Vietnam has dropped.