Guangxi sweetens sugar industry cooperation with ASEAN

Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region and ASEAN countries are complementary in sugar industry and agriculture cooperation, officials from the region announced during a press conference on Aug 18.

Sugar is one of the important strategic products and Guangxi is China's biggest sugar producing region. 

The sugar cane plantation area and sugar output volume of Guangxi has been accounting for nearly 60 percent of the country's total for 17 consecutive years and the region has now developed more than 20 deeply processed sugar products. 

Guangxi now has been moving forward with the construction of a big data cloud platform for the sugar industry to make it into a platform to gather comprehensive information from the whole sugar industry chain in both China and ASEAN. 

Chongzuo in Guangxi, which enjoys the reputation as being "China's sugar city," is now accelerating the construction of a national sugar industrial park. A Thailand sugar company ranking among the world's top three invested 2.7 billion yuan in the park for projects such as China's biggest single pressing production line.

The core area of the park is expected to achieve an industrial output value of more than 100 billion yuan ($15.41 billion) by 2030. 

An advanced manufacturer for sugar production lines in China, Guangxi Construction Engineering Group No 1 Installation Engineering, has undertaken a batch of sugar factory projects in ASEAN countries including Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and Cambodia.

Officials added that platforms such as the China-ASEAN Sugar, Agricultural Machinery, and Sugarcane Mechanization Exhibition will be developed to promote mutual communication in the sector.