The United States has maintained the Philippines’s sugar allocation of 142,160 metric tons raw value (MTRV) under Washington’s import program for fiscal year (FY) 2022, according to the US Trade Representative (USTR).
The USTR recently announced the in-quota allocations under the tariff-rate quotas (TRQ) on imported raw cane sugar, refined and specialty sugar and sugar-containing products for FY 2022, which will start on October 1.
Under the TRQ system, countries like the Philippines can export to the US specified quantities of products at a relatively low tariff.
“On September 13, 2021, the Administrator of the Foreign Agricultural Service of the US Department of Agriculture (Administrator) announced the establishment of the in-quota quantity for raw cane sugar for FY 2022,” the USTR said in a recent statement.
“The in-quota quantity for the TRQ on raw cane sugar for FY 2022 is 1,117,195 metric tons raw value (MTRV), which is the minimum amount to which the United States is committed under the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement.”
The Philippines kept its historical US sugar import allocation, making it the country with the third biggest volume out of the 40 countries that are allowed to export the sweetener under the TRQ scheme. This is the fifth straight year that the US
“These allocations are based on the countries’ historical shipments to the United States,” the USTR said.
“Raw cane sugar, refined and specialty sugar, and sugar-containing products for FY 2022 TRQs may enter the United States as of October 1, 2021.”
Latest available Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) data showed that the Philippines exported 104,012 MT commercial weight (MTCW) of raw sugar to the United States out of its 138,154 MTCW (142,160 MTRV) allocation for fiscal year 2021.
For crop year 2021-2022 which began on September 1, the SRA board allocated the country’s entire sugar production for the domestic market to ensure the sufficient supply of the sweetener as bad weather affected sugarcane.
The SRA board made the decision following the announcement of the state weather bureau that the reemergence of La Niña will coincide with the harvest and peak milling season in key production areas.
The SRA’s initial pre-milling estimate for raw sugar production in CY 2021-2022 stands at 2.099 million metric tons (MMT), almost two percent lower than the 2.138 MMT recorded in the previous CY.
Last month, the Philippine Sugar Millers Association said the SRA must explain its decision not to allocate sugar for the US market to maintain the country’s sugar quota.
Image courtesy of Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg