China will boost mechanization of its sugar industry over the next five years as part of a broader plan to upgrade domestic production, the manager of the country's sugar reserves said on Friday. China aims to plant 70 percent of its sugarcane and 98 percent of sugar beet with machinery by 2022, up from 40 percent and 80 percent at present, according to a five-year plan issued by the China Sugar Association in October, the China Merchandise Reserve Management Centre reported on its website on Friday.
Mechanical harvesting of sugarcane and sugar beet will also rise to 20 percent and 90 percent respectively over the same period, according to the plan, from 4 percent and 60 percent now.
The measures were part of a broader plan to "upgrade the domestic sugar industry and improve its comprehensive competitiveness significantly in the next five years," the document said.
China will speed up the development of machinery and improve sugar refining technology to allow sugar production at various scales and in a variety of landscapes, it said. It will also accelerate the cultivation of quality breeds of sugar crops, and improve technology in irrigation, fertilization, and refining.
The plan comes after China halved permits for out-of-quota sugar imports to around 1 million tonnes and imposed extra tariffs, after local mills complained that imports had "seriously damaged" the domestic industry.
China's sugar imports in the first nine months of the year fell 29.8 percent from a year earlier to 1.83 million tonnes, according to customs data.
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