Ben Tre Sugar JSC
Innovations for Better Quality

 

To date, Ben Tre Sugar Joint Stock Company has undergone 11 harvesting seasons and produced 186,236 tonnes of sugar. The company has invested in scaling up its daily processing capacity from 1,000 tonnes to 2,500 tonnes. Apart from capacity upgrading, innovations have enabled the company to operate more efficiently and stably. With the adoption of ISO9001:2000 quality management system, the corporate governance has gradually improved. The process of quality management has maintained and renewed to boost operating efficiency.

 

Materials play a crucial role in the plant’s operations; thus, the company was granted 50,000 ha to build sugarcane fields by the People’s Committee of Ben Tre province. However, to ensure supply sources and operations of the factory, the company annually expands its material zone. The company invested in an additional 400 ha in the 2007-2008 crop, 1,100 ha in the 2008 -2009 crop and 1,500 ha in the 2009 - 2010 crop. At present, the firm is focusing on its material fields in An Hiep, An Duc and An Binh Tay communes (Ba Tri district), Binh Thanh commune (Thanh Phu district), Tan Trung commune (Mo Cay district), Chau Binh commune (Giong Trom district) and Phu Long commune (Binh Dai district). It also purchased sugarcane under the Decision 80/QD-TTg of the Government. The sugar producer has collected sugarcanes at the market price and sent its inspectors to local farms to prevent bad deeds. Besides, the company also coordinated with the Long An province-based Hiep Hoa Sugar Joint Stock Company, Indian sugar plant and other companies to purchase sugarcanes from farmers.

 

The company went public under the equitization policy of the Government. After the transformation, the company’s operations were getting better with increasing annual revenues and profits. The company made a record in the 2006-2007 crop. Thanks to the application of the ISO 9001:2000 quality management system, the products are of good quality. Profits of the company exceeded VND17 billion.

To make the above successes, the company has applied a number of solutions to boost production. It has issued regulations and criteria applicable to all operations from production and sales to administration. In 2008, the company sold its sugarcane dregs worth VND1 billion to animal feed producers and earned more than VND100 million from selling electricity. Besuco has signed a contract to produce micro-organism fertilisers with a Japanese fertilizer company. This will create a good source of income for the company in the coming time.

 

At present, Ben Tre Sugar Joint Stock Company has more than 360 employees who work in nine departments and two workshops. After 11 crops, the governance capacity has always been enhanced year after year. Importantly, most employees are eager to work for the sugar industry.

 

Mr Nguyen Thanh Son, Director of Besuco, said, there was another element for the development of the company. The sugar industry has created jobs for many people, reduced poverty and developed rural areas. With the national policy, this industry has a strong backing from the State. To develop the sugar industry, the Prime Minister has issued the Decision 80 to support purchasing of products for farmers. The national sugar programme has helped sugar producers to access bank loans and interest rates are conducive to the development of the sugar business.