China's sugar consumption will continue to rise in the next five to ten years and domestic supply cannot meet the increased demand, experts from the National Development and Reform Commission said.

Sugar prices will greatly increase as the land where sugarcane grows continues to decrease.

Last year, the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in south China, China's main sugar producer, planned to reduce its sugarcane-cultivating area from 766,700 hectares in 2003 to 533,300 hectares in 2008 due to declining prices and increasing imports.

Both Guangxi's sugarcane cultivating area and its output account for more than half of the country's total. About 12 million farmers in the region grow sugarcane.

The Financial News reported Thursday that at present, the cost price of sugar produced in China, a main sugar producer and consumer, is 100 yuan (12 US dollars) to 200 yuan (24 dollars) higher than that of the imported ones.

Meanwhile, according to customs statistics, China imported one million tons annually of sugar, causing the decline of the sugar prices in domestic market. But this has hurt the healthy and steady development of the sugar industry, experts said.

Instead experts call for efforts to help farmers to expand production scales and breed new strains.