CHINA: Government to sell 260,000 tonnes reserves Friday
Published: 03/03/2010, 2:31:02 PM
China will sell 260,000 metric tonnes of sugar from state reserves on Friday "to stabilize market prices and ensure supply," according to Dow Jones.
The sales will be conducted through open auctions and the floor price had been set at CNY4,000 (US$586) a metric tonne, it said Tuesday.
This will be the fourth release since December. China has already sold around 852,200 tonnes of sugar from reserves through three batches in December and January.
Jia Zhiren, chairman of the China Sugar Association, said Tuesday in an industry conference that the country's sugar output for the 2009/10 crop year, which began Oct. 1, could fall to around 11 million tons from 12.43 million tonnes in the previous season due to drought and shrinking acreage.
Cash prices in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China's largest sugar-producing area, were quoted around CNY5,400/tonne Tuesday, up from around CNY5,000/tonne at the end of 2009.