Bacolod City – The Philippines will delay decisions on sugar importation until mid-2025, following the conclusion of the current crop year’s harvest, in order to gain a clearer understanding of domestic supply.
The decision was reached in a meeting between Agriculture Secretary Francisco P. Tiu Laurel, Jr. and Sugar Regulatory Authority Administrator Pablo Luis Azcona, Board Member Dave Sanson, and Andre Corro, on Thursday, November 7, at the Department of Agriculture office in Quezon City.
Laurel said there is no immediate need for additional imports, as the domestic supply of both raw and refined sugar remains stable and sufficient to meet projected needs. “Given the current situation, Administrator Azcona and I agreed that a decision on sugar importation could be delayed until after May, when the current harvest season ends,” he said.
“Our supply for both Raw and Refined Sugar are stable and we are just beginning our harvest season, so Sec Laurel and I agree that there will be no sugar imports until after harvest sometime in May or June”, Azcona explained.
Administrator Azcona said the current harvest season started slowly, with total cane volume reaching only a third of the amount harvested during the same period in the previous crop year. He attributed this lower sugar content per ton of cane to the El Niño weather phenomenon.
“Farmers had to delay their harvests to allow the cane to mature further and increase sugar content,” Azcona said in a statement issued by the SRA.
The prolonged dry spells brought by El Niño resulted in the cane being physiologically immature, resulting in a 16% lower sugar content per ton of cane, constraining sugar output despite an increase in planting areas. Per SRA data, the area planted to sugar cane this year increased slightly to 389,461 hectares, up from 388,378 hectares in the previous crop year.
In Sugar Order #1, SRA estimated this year’s sugar production at 1.782M metric tons, which is a 7.2 percent drop from last year. The U.S. Department of Agriculture forecasts a 3.6 percent decline in Philippine raw sugar production for the current crop year, projecting that output will fall to 1.85 million metric tons from 1.92 million metric tons in the previous crop year.
The current crop year ends in August next year. (Gilbert Bayoran via The Visayan Daily Star)