Sugar Prices Continue to Rise in ChinaChina's sugar prices continued to rise this month, according to the "Market Daily".Latest figures show that the sugar prices reached 3,100 yuan (about US$380) per ton, up 1,250 yuan from the end of 1999. Analysts attributed the price hike to the restructuring of the sugar industry and the monopoly of a few sugar producers. In south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, a major sugar distribution center, large sugar groups control some one million tons of sugar or two thirds of the region's total. Experts predict that the total sugar output will not likely exceed 7 million tons this year, leaving a 1.5-million-ton gap between supply and demand. Sugar prices are therefore likely to continue to rise in the latter half of the year. |
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