Thailand to complete sugarcane crush two months early in March

Singapore — Thailand's sugarcane crushing operations for the October 2020-September 2021 marketing year are expected to end by early March, two months ahead of a typical season, market sources said Feb. 24.

The country's sugar cane crush usually begins in December and ends by early May, but a second consecutive year of dry weather conditions has led to tightness in cane supply, resulting in a shorter cane crushing period in the current marketing season.

Thai farmers switched away from planting sugarcane to other agricultural crops when minimum cane prices were weak has further reduced cane acreage.

"We have a very small crop so crushing will end earlier. Some Thai mills will stop [crushing] in end February but the majority will stop by early March," a Thai producer source said.

The cane crush volume as of Feb. 12 stood at 50.71 million mt, down 23% compared to the same time last year, according to a crushing report seen by S&P Global Platts.

Platts Analytics estimates Thai cane production for the current marketing year at 66 million mt, which equates to sugar production of 7.31 million mt tel quel.

Given a 66 million mt crush, this would imply that Thailand has already completed more than 75% of the cane crush operations this season.

Market sources also noted that the government's 20% limit on burned cane has had little impact on extending the tail end of the crush.

The Thai government imposed the cap in a bid to improve air quality by reducing crop burning in the country, Platts reported earlier.

"Even with the lack of workers, there is just too little cane to crush. We won't expect much difference in meeting the government's [burned cane] policy," a Thai-based trader said.