Rains cause fall in sugar output – SRA

MANILA, Philippines - Rains at the start of the sugar crop year and shortage of cane cutters and haulers are causing cane harvest and sugar recovery in the Visayas—mostly in Negros—to fall, the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) confirmed yesterday.

SRA administrator Ma. Regina Martin said rains at the start of the sugar milling season in September affected the maturity of canes in the Visayas region, that supplies more than half of the country’s annual sugar production.

She noted that sugarcane cultivation areas in Visayas also lack cane cutters and cane haulers.

Listed sugar miller Roxas Holdings Inc., disclosed last week that it delayed its milling operations in Batangas because of slower cane maturity in its cultivation areas. At the same time, it noted a shortage of cane supply in Negros.

Out of this year’s expected sugar production output of 2.5 million metric tons (MT), about 1.5 million MT is expected to come from the Visayas region that comprises sugar-producing regions of Negros, Eastern Visayas, Leyte, Panay.

Negros province alone is expected to produce 55 percent of the domestic sugar output this year equivalent to 1.375 million MT.

Domestic sugar output as of Feb. 1 has already reached more than half of the production target for the year at P1.295 million MT, but this was lower by 4.95 percent compared to the production level in the same period in the previous crop year.

Martin said that based on ongoing production estimates, sugar milling recovery in Negros has been falling at the rate of about two to three percent.

Should sugar production continue to fall at this rate by the end of the milling season, the SRA said the country would miss out on 50,000 metric tons of sugar production.

Domestic cane production as of Feb. 1 was placed at 13 million MT of cane, down 3.69 percent from the same period last year. In Negros alone, 9.01 MT of cane have been produced, lower by 1.31 percent year-on-year.

The SRA said domestic supply is still protected even if the country misses out on 50,000 MT of production, but reallocation would have to be made should the shortfall reach 100,000 MT.

For the current crop year 2014- 2015, the Philippines is allocating five percent of its total expected domestic production of 2.50 million MT for US exports on top of the 11, 704 unshipped US sugar.

It is allocating another five percent of the total projected domestic production for the period to world market exports.

The bulk, or 90 percent of the expected production, would be allocated to the domestic market to cope with increased demand and prevent price spikes.