(Text/Dongbo News Agency reporter Tang Yi) Sugar is the most common homemade seasoning. As one of the important sugar producing areas, China and ASEAN have always been "good partners" in sugar industry cooperation by virtue of their advantages in geography, raw materials and technology. As an important open cooperation platform between China and ASEAN, the China-ASEAN Expo (hereinafter referred to as the East Expo) provides a good opportunity for the improvement and upgrading of the sugar industry chain of the two sides, and adds momentum to the "sweet cause" of China and ASEAN.
Conspiracy for "sweet causes"
The signing of the project is an important embodiment of the economic and trade effectiveness of the East Expo. On September 21, 2019, the signing ceremony of the 16th East Expo project concentration was held in Nanning, Guangxi, in which Guangxi Nanning East Asia Sugar Group (hereinafter referred to as East Asia Sugar) successfully signed three "international cooperation projects", including the ruminant feed production project and xylose production project (phase I) signed between East Asia Sugar and Fusui County, Chongzuo City; Thailand Liangyi Fuel Ethanol Company (the energy business segment of Thai Liangyi Group, the parent company of East Asia Sugar) signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Guangxi COFCO Biomass Energy Co., Ltd.
At the same time, commodity exhibition and sales are also an important way for the East Expo to promote economic and trade cooperation. With the help of the East Expo platform, sugar products from ASEAN countries have gradually increased their popularity in the Chinese market and opened up sales channels.
Sugar product display at the 18th East Expo (Source: East Asia Sugar)
In front of the palm sugar booth of the Indonesian Pavilion of the 16th East Expo, a sign with the slogan "Help diabetics" stimulated the curiosity of the visitors from time to time. "The taste is similar to caramel, and there is a strong plant aroma." Mr. Li, who couldn't hold back the curiosity, personally tasted the tasting palm candy placed on the booth.
Ms. Dianawi, a merchant of palm sugar, introduced that palm sugar, also known as coconut sugar, has a glycemic index of only 35, which is about 50% lower than sucrose, so it has become a natural organic sweetener that diabetics can also take. "Compared with ordinary brown sugar, palm sugar not only has a lower glycemic index, but also naturally contains rich vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients, which are mild in nature and have the effects of tonifying qi, strengthening the spleen and warming the stomach." Dianawi greeted waves of visitors and merchants enthusiastically. At the same time, the sweet and delicious coconut sugar and other sugar products in the Vietnam Pavilion and Brunei Pavilion also added a "sweet atmosphere" to the East Expo exhibition hall.
The exhibition continues to empower
At the 17th East Expo in 2020, Nanning Sugar Industry exhibited paper molded products, masks, sanitary napkins, mulberry fruit wine, mulberry juice and other products in addition to white sugar. Liao Yingcan, secretary of the party committee and chairman of Guangxi Rural Investment Group Co., Ltd., pointed out that Nanning Sugar Industry should further sort out and clarify the direction of development, not only to do a good job in the "sweet business" of helping farmers get rich, but also to further extend the industrial chain and make a difference in the non-sugar sector, such as expanding adult care products as another development direction for product research and development.
Under the background of the continuous extension of the sugar industry chain, in order to accelerate the transformation and upgrading of the sugar industry and agricultural machinery industry to high-quality development, further enhance the comprehensive competitiveness of industrial development, and strengthen all-round cooperation and exchanges between the sugar industry and sugar-related industries and agricultural machinery industries at home and abroad, the first China-ASEAN Sugar Expo and China-ASEAN Agricultural Machinery and Sugarcane Mechanization Expo (hereinafter referred to as the Sugar Expo and Agricultural Machinery Exhibition) were held in Nanning, Guangxi in 2017.
As a professional exhibition under the framework of the East Expo, the Sugar Expo and Agricultural Machinery Exhibition cover the exhibition area of agricultural and sugarcane machinery related products, the air compressor area of the sugar exhibition, the sugar-related food exhibition area, and the supporting service exhibition area. From the white sugar and brown sugar cubes common in daily kitchens to disposable tableware, packaging boxes and other products extended by the sugar industry chain, it reflects that the Sugar Expo not only stays in the dimension of planning "sweet business", but also strengthens the all-round cooperation and exchanges between the sugar industry and the sugar-related industry and the agricultural machinery industry at home and abroad, in order to steadily promote the integration of sugar production capacity, further promote the comprehensive competitiveness of the development of the sugar industry, and constantly strengthen the trading platform for pan-sugar products.
Disposable tableware, packaging boxes and other products extended by the sugar industry chain (Source: Nanning Sugar Co., Ltd.)
As the main producing area of sugarcane, Guangxi's sugar output has ranked more than 60% of the country's total output for 10 consecutive years, and the sugar industry is of great significance to driving Guangxi's economic development. Relying on its own excellent conditions, Guangxi has also fully combined its geographical advantages and platform advantages, maximized the market attributes of the sugar industry, and achieved "acceleration" in sugar cooperation with ASEAN countries. Among them, Guangxi has achieved remarkable results in the construction of key platforms for the sugar industry.
Chongzuo City, Guangxi, known as the "Sugar Capital of China", is cooperating with Thailand Liangyi Group to build the Zhongtai (Chongzuo) Industrial Park, with sugar recycling, sugar food, resource-based recycling industry as the leading industries, and the long-term comprehensive output value will reach more than 300 billion yuan by the end of 2030, and is committed to building a large-scale sugar and food processing industrial base in China.
In addition, Guangxi Construction Group and Thailand CP Group jointly built Thailand CP-Guangxi Construction Science and Technology Industrial Park in Rayong, Thailand, which is the first modern industrial park for Chinese investors in Thailand. In addition, with the goal of building "the world's leading manufacturer of sugar production lines", China Construction Group has undertaken two sugar factory construction projects in Thailand, with a total contract amount of more than 2.3 billion yuan.
Guangxi is the main producing area of sugar cane (Photo: Tang Yi)
After years of development, the sugar industry has become the best example of the deep integration of primary, secondary and tertiary industries in Guangxi, and the raw materials of sugarcane have basically been "eaten dry and squeezed out". Sucrose deep-processed products have been continuously enriched, and nearly 20 products such as liquid sugar, sugarcane juice concentrate, sugarcane vinegar beverage and medicinal sugar have been industrialized. At the same time, closely following the idea of "stabilizing sugar, extending sugar, surpassing sugar, and strengthening sugar", Guangxi's sugar by-products have also been gradually transformed into high-value utilization, and have now become an important production base of China's green high-end tableware, yeast and yeast extracts.
Sweet fruit together
With the deepening of the development of the global digital economy, the integration of 5G, artificial intelligence, cloud computing and other technologies has released the development potential of the industry and become a new driving force for economic development, and the transformation and upgrading of the sugar industry also urgently needs the help of advanced technology. The East Expo actively plays the role of a platform to "match" sugar enterprises and advanced technology enterprises.
At the 18th East Expo in 2021, Liu Xuechen, business manager of the financial technology business group of China-ASEAN Information Port Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as China Dongxin), introduced at the Advanced Technology Exhibition that China Dongxin led the construction of three resource trading centers of sugar operation, shipping and big data, which promoted industrial transformation and upgrading and the effective allocation of resources.
According to Liu Xuechen, in view of the problems of small scale, high cost, unstable price, low added value and low synergy efficiency in the cane sugar industry, China Dongxin has built a cane sugar platform to carry out Internet-based transformation of the cane sugar industry chain, focusing on the three core processes of production, manufacturing and sales, building three major platforms of raw material planting, production system and product trading throughout the entire industrial chain, and integrating, managing and scheduling all links of "farming, planting, management, harvesting and transportation" online to achieve effective statistics of production, processing, sales and other data. Centralized management and accurate forecasting. "The platform effectively guarantees the balance between supply and demand and consolidates the core position of Guangxi Sugar in the national sugar industry." Liu Xuechen said.
In addition, as one of the permanent thematic exhibitions under the framework of the East Expo, the China-ASEAN Advanced Technology Exhibition (hereinafter referred to as the Advanced Technology Exhibition) mainly displays China's innovative achievements, technical products and ASEAN-oriented scientific and technological products. In 2021, East Asia Sugar Group was invited to participate in the Advanced Technology Exhibition. As the only invited sugar enterprise that year, East Asia Sugar showed that in addition to a variety of high-quality bottled and bagged refined white sugar, yellow rock sugar, single crystal rock sugar, efficient and safe blended fertilizer, dietary fiber extracted from sugar by-products, Sino-Thai technical cooperation research and development of soil water retention agent and other products rich in scientific and technological content are also dizzying. This also means that driving the scientific and technological progress of the sugar industry, extending the industrial chain, increasing the added value of products, and expanding the new ecosystem have become the inevitable choice for many sugar enterprises to enhance their comprehensive competitiveness.
East Asia Sugar Booth at the 18th East Expo (Source: East Asia Sugar)
Making full use of the East Expo as an exchange and cooperation platform, sugar enterprises will continue to consolidate the foundation of China-ASEAN cooperation, gather intellectual resources, accelerate the technical cooperation and transformation of sugar industry in China and ASEAN countries, empower the "transformation and upgrading" of traditional sugar industries, cultivate opportunities with innovation and development, and win the future with sustainable development.