Beijing, Feb. 15 - The heavy snowstorms in southern China have affected more than half of the sugar cane acreage in Guangxi province, the main growing region, said an industry participant Friday.
About 476,600 hectares of sugar cane in the province, 51% of the total 933,333 hectares planted there, have been hit by the snow, said Yang Guohua, manager of the information department at www.cnsugar.com.cn, a professional sugar Web site run by state-owned Guangxi Bulk Sugar Exchange Center.
The snow has already resulted in lower sugar production rate - the proportion of sugar produced from sugar cane - of 10%, compared to 12% before the snowstorms, said Yang.
"With the rising temperature (after the Lunar New Year), the impact will be even greater," he added. Warm weather immediately after snow usually harms the sugar cane crop.
While analysts said it was too early to calculate the exact loss in sugar output, Yang said it was "very likely" sugar output would fall this year compared to last year, despite an acreage expansion of 133,333 hectares in Guangxi province.
Guangxi province produces 80% of China's sugar cane and more than 60% of its sugar.
Guangxi's sugar output from sugar cane was 7.09 million metric tons in the crop year that began November 2006.
Sugar cash prices in Guangxi province were CNY3,620-CNY3,690/ton Friday, up from around CNY3,350/ton in January.
Yang expects prices to rise further and touch CNY3,800/ton in the near term.