Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, Dec. 15 (Xinhua) -- China Sugar Industry Observation.
Xinhua News Agency reporters Dai Xiaohe, Chen Yifan, Han Jianuo.
On the afternoon of the 14th, the general secretary of the first class went to Laibin City, Guangxi Province for investigation and research, inspected the harvesting scene of 10,000 acres of sugarcane forests and mechanized operations, and had cordial exchanges with sugarcane farmers, agricultural mechanics and agricultural technicians. **The general secretary pointed out that Guangxi is the main sugar producing area in China, and it is necessary to strengthen and expand this characteristic and advantageous industry, and play a greater role in ensuring the safety of the national sugar industry and promoting the income of sugarcane farmers.
China is an important producer and consumer of sugar, and sugar cultivation occupies an important position in China's agricultural economy. In the past five years, China's sugar production has accounted for about 56%。Sugar is not only an indispensable daily necessities, but also a basic raw material for more than 120 industries such as food, beverage, pharmaceutical, and chemical. Xinhua News Agency reporters interviewed the development of China's sugar industry.
Sub-heading) Self-cultivation of excellent products, stabilizing the border and enriching the people.
Walk into the Longan Yangpu Agricultural Science and Technology Base in Dongmen Town, Fusui County, Guangxi, 120,000 acres of cane forests are lush and endless. Sugarcane farmers are busy in the sugarcane forests, chopping cane, peeling leaves, bundling, and shipping, and large trucks full of "sweet raw materials" are ready to go.
Sugar includes white sugar, brown sugar and rock sugar, and the upstream of the industrial chain is mainly the cultivation of sugarcane, sugar beet and other sugars.
China is the earliest country in the world to use sugarcane to make sugar, with a history of more than 2,000 years. At present, the distribution of sugar is "sweet in the south and sweet in the north", and the yield ratio of cane sugar to beet sugar is about 9:1.
From the perspective of sugarcane production, although sugarcane is planted in all southern provinces, Guangxi, Yunnan and Guangdong occupy the top three positions in sugarcane production, with a total sugarcane output of more than 90% of the national output. Sugar beet is grown in all northern provinces, mainly in Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang, which account for 85% of the national production.
For every three spoonfuls of sugar in the country, two spoonfuls come from Guangxi. As the country's largest sugar planting base and the main sugar producing area, Guangxi's sugar cane planting area and sugar output have accounted for about 60% of the country for 19 consecutive seasons, and it is a veritable "sugar jar" in China.
**The general secretary pointed out that it is necessary to actively cultivate and promote improved varieties, improve the level of mechanized operations, and build a modern agricultural industrial park.
At present, the planting area of new self-breeding varieties of sugarcane in China accounts for more than 95%, and the development of sugar industry involves the vital interests of ethnic minorities and 40 million sugar farmers in border areas, which is an important starting point for stabilizing the border and enriching the people, and is of great significance to rural revitalization. Liu Xiaoxue, a scientist at the national sugar system industrial economic post, said that in the 2022 23 crushing season, China's sugar industry achieved sales revenue of 69.6 billion yuan and sugar farmers earned 37.1 billion yuan.
Chongzuo City, Guangxi Province is known as the "Sugar Capital of China". Zhang Benchao, a large planter, contracted 2,200 acres of land to grow sugar cane in Dalu Town, Jiangzhou District, Chongzuo City, "After we cut and harvested, the sugar factory will arrange vehicles to come and buy, and the purchase price this year is 540 yuan tons." It is estimated that the yield per mu in this crushing season is about 8 tons, and the next plan is to expand to 5,000 mu. ”
In Gengma County, Yunnan Province, some villages have a per capita income of about 20,000 yuan from planting sugarcane, which has become an important industry for rural revitalization. There are 164 growers in the Mangyu Group of Mangweng Village, with a planting area of 5,904 mu and a yield of 55 tons, per capita income 240,000 yuan, forming a situation of "doing sugar things, eating sugar rice, and being a sugar man".
Sub-heading) Insufficient Production: Demand Exceeds Demand.
Processing and preparation is the middle of the sugar industry chain.
A sugarcane is sweet at both ends", one end is connected to the sugarcane farmers, and the other end is connected to the sugar enterprises.
Walking into the unloading yard of Nanning Mingyang Sugar Factory, a large truck is weighed in an orderly manner, and after arriving at the sugar cane delivery point, the unloading is quickly completed by the automatic unloading system, and the sugar cane is dumped into the pressing conveyor belt to enter the crushing and pressing process. In the refining workshop, with the orderly operation of fully automatic packing and robot palletizing equipment, bags of white sugar are quickly packed, and the mechanical arm accurately grabs and places them neatly.
The processes of sugar cane unloading, crushing and pressing, and boiling have been automated, and information such as trucks, sugar cane varieties, and sugar content can be monitored and adjusted in real time through the large screen in the central control room. Li Yijiang, manager of the company's production technology department, said that after the company's technical upgrading of the whole process of white sugar production, the production efficiency and benefits have been greatly improved. At present, the company's daily crushing capacity is 120,000 tons, with an annual output of 150,000 tons of white sugar.
Statistics from the China Sugar Association show that as of the end of September 2023, a total of 8.97 million tons of sugar were produced in the country during the 2022 23 sugar production period, and 8.53 million tons of sugar were sold nationwide. The cumulative average sales of finished white sugar in the national sugar industry enterprises were 6,270 yuan tons, up 516 yuan tons year-on-year. In September 2023, the average sales of finished white sugar will be 7,009 yuan ton.
Li Kai, chairman of the Guangxi Sugar Society, said that China's per capita annual sugar consumption is less than half of the world average, but the situation of insufficient production and demand and short supply has existed for a long time. "China's annual sugar production is about 10 million tons, consumption is about 15 million to 16 million tons, and imports are about 5 million to 6 million tons. Li Kai said.
China's sugar industry once had a prominent problem of "scattered, small and weak". In order to enhance the competitiveness of the sugar industry, the industry has accelerated strategic restructuring and production capacity integration, and developed towards high-end, intelligent and green.
Lei Chengbao, director of the Industrial Coordination and Planning Division of the Sugar Industry Development Office of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, said that the number of sugar groups in Guangxi has been reduced from 17 at the beginning of the 13th Five-Year Plan to 10The number of sugar factories has been optimised from 104 to 73.
Sub-heading) Eat dry and squeeze clean things to the fullest.
In addition to sugar production, sugar cane can also produce more products, and the downstream industrial chain of sugar is applied to industry, food, condiments and other industries, forming a circular economy of the sugar industry.
**During the inspection, the general secretary emphasized that China's sugar industry is facing fierce international competition, and it is necessary to increase scientific and technological innovation, extend the industrial chain, increase added value, continuously improve quality, reduce costs, increase efficiency, and promote high-quality development in accordance with the requirements of high-end, intelligent and green.
At present, China is accelerating the development of the whole sugar industry chain, and promoting the transformation and upgrading of the traditional sugar industry to biochemical, food industry, and fermentation industry.
Guangxi Funan Bioenergy*** through cogeneration, the use of upstream sugar mill sugar production of bagasse and agricultural and forestry waste as fuel for power generation, while providing steam to the sugar factory, the burned bagasse ash can also fertilize the sugar cane, to achieve resource and energy recycling.
Wei Yangcai, manager of the company's operation department, said that the company has more than 330 days of power generation per year, consumes 400,000 tons of clean fuels such as bagasse, and generates 1700 million kilowatt hours, 600,000 tons of steam per year to sugar mills.
After the process transformation, bagasse is used for pulp and paper, filter mud is converted into bio-organic fertilizer and returned to the field to grow cane, and molasses is processed into highly active yeast and yeast extract ......Lin Weimin, Secretary of the Party Committee of Guangxi Laibin East Sugar Group, said that the company has built three complete and high-tech sugar circular economy industrial chains from sugar to papermaking and bioengineering.
With the continuous extension of the sugar industry chain to the downstream and the value chain to the middle and high-end, the sugar industry cluster has gradually become a trend. In Chongzuo Xianggui Circular Economy Industrial Park, a number of downstream enterprises such as yeast factories, fertilizer factories, paper mills, and feed factories are gathered hereIn the China-ASEAN Nanning Airport Fusui Economic Zone, well-known food and beverage companies such as Dali Garden, Jinmailang, and Dajia Food have been stationed one after another.
In Dajia International Food (Guangxi), a number of intelligent production lines are running at full capacity. "The production of our products requires a lot of cane sugar, and we work closely with local sugar mills. Wang Yaqi, the company's head of production, said that the company began production in June this year, and is expected to consume more than 20,000 tons of sugar annually and have an annual revenue of nearly 2 billion yuan.
Li Wengang, director of the Sugar Industry Development Office of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, said that Guangxi will continue to deepen the reform of the sugar industry system and mechanism, accelerate the high-quality development of the sugar industry, and contribute to ensuring the security of national sugar supply, helping rural revitalization, promoting ethnic unity, and maintaining border tranquility. (ENDS).