SRA says more sugar imports needed

MANILA, Philippines — Philippine refined sugar production is estimated to be lower by 100,000 metric tons (MT) this crop year due to early milling and weather disturbances, warranting additional importation to ensure enough supply in the market, the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) said yesterday.

In a media interview, SRA acting administrator Pablo Luis Azcona said the refined sugar output is estimated to have a significant drop of about 100,000 MT.

“We are at around 640,000 MT, but refineries have ended and we’re still far from the 750,000 MT produced last year,” Azcona said.

He attributed the decline to heavy rains, which delayed farmers from harvesting sugarcane while sugar refiners have overestimated the supply of bagasse – a sugarcane by-product – which fueled their refineries.

“It’s all weather-related. The farmers can’t harvest sugarcane during heavy rains, so there are no sugarcane arriving at the mills,” Azcona said.

“And because sugarcane do not reach the refineries on time, refiners’ estimates on fuel for the year were short. Their fuel is bagasse, which is from sugarcane,” the SRA chief said.

The SRA also pointed to the early milling in August at the start of the crop year, instead of the usual commencement in September.

Azcona said most millers have informed the SRA that they have or are about to end their milling, which he described as “a surprising situation” since milling usually closes at end-June.

“As early as March, we already noticed the shortage. If we add one more month of milling, we don’t have a problem. But we started early in August,” he said.

Earlier, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) said raw sugar recovery was lower during the early milling in September, which caused the processing of immature cane.

This is because the milling schedule started early in August so farmers can take advantage of high prices.

As the SRA projects sugar shortage by Aug. 31, the SRA has recommended another round of sugar importation of up to 150,000 MT.

Earlier, President Marcos approved the maximum of 150,000 MT sugar imports to boost supply.

“We recommended to import 150,000 MT so we’ll have a buffer. If the computations will be off, we’ll have a bigger buffer stock at the start of the next crop year,” Azcona said.

The SRA is currently consolidating numbers of raw and refined sugar production.

“That’s why we’re updating production numbers to confirm numbers which we presented to the President, if it will be within expectations or slightly better,” he said.