Browse Data and Analysis

Bite size local news, Post reports and activity summaries wrapped by ATO Hong Kong. In this issue: ATO Hong Kong Launches Branding Video Campaign on Social Media; Hong Kong Workforce Sees Biggest Decline in Decades

Export prices of Thai rice dropped 1-2 percent due to the weakening of the Thai baht and limited trading during the Thai New Year’s holiday.

On April 12, 2023, the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (MARA) jointly published a draft “Implementation Opinions of SAMR and MARA on Carrying Out Crop Seed Certification" for comment.

In August 2021, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) State Administration of Market Regulation (SAMR) released an updated National Food Safety Standard Restricting Excessive Packaging for Foods and Cosmetics (GB 23350-2021).

On April 14, 2023, China notified to the World Trade Organization (WTO) under G/SPS/N/CHN/1278 two updated phytosanitary certificate templates. These are the Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Phytosanitary Certificate and the Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Phytosanitary Certificate for Re-Export.

MY 2022/23 cane sugar production is estimated at 7.92 MMT, revised down 1.08 MMT from the USDA official estimate due to lower-than-normal rainfall in Guangxi, China’s largest sugar producing province. Sugar consumption has begun to rebound since after the removal of COVID-related restrictions. As China’s sugar imports are curbed by high world prices, stocks are likely to decline.

FAS Manila forecasts marketing year (MY) 2024 raw sugar production at 1.9 million metric tons (MT). Higher prices encouraged more farmers to plant sugarcane and better fertilization is expected to result in higher production. Post expects limited exports to resume in 2024 given high production and high carryover stocks.

The Malaysian food manufacturing and processing industry is an important component of the country’s economic growth and has seen significant development and innovation for shelf stable products as consumer demands increase. This sector includes several multinational corporation facilities as well as a range of local company operations.

Most raw materials for food processing are imported into Singapore due to its limited land, natural resources, livestock, and agricultural production. Singapore imported $1.2 billion of U.S. processed food products in 2022, which was a 9% increase compared with 2021.

Australia’s sugar production is forecast to increase to 4.4 million metric tons (MMT) in marketing year (MY) 2023/24, from an estimated 4.2 MMT in MY 2022/23. This increase is due to an expected rise in sugar cane crush to 33.5 MMT in MY 2023/24, from an estimate of 32.6 MMT in the previous year.

Private sugar mills expansion leads to increased production in 2022/2023. El Nino, which usually increases sugar content in sugarcane and continues area expansion by private sugar mills is forecast to further increase plantation white sugar production in 2023/24 to 2.6 million metric tons (MMT).

Sugar production in MY2022/23 and MY2023/24 is still far below record production levels due to reduced sugarcane acreage.