No increase in US sugar quota seen

MANILA, Philippines - The US government is not yet inclined for now to give an additional export quota for Philippine raw sugar in the next milling season because of bumper harvest in the mainland and in Mexico, according to the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA).

“Although there may be unforeseen events, an additional US quota is not an option for us for now because of good harvest in the US mainland and Mexico, “ said Rosemarie Gumera, Manager of the policy & planning department of the SRA.

Mexico enjoys unlimited access to the US market because of its proximity.

“Mexico has bumper harvest and unlimited access so, at this point in time, there is still no indication (that the Philippines will be granted an additional quota for the next cropping season),” said Gumera.

The current milling season is expected to close a month ahead of the traditional closing in July because of sustained production.

The SRA is raising its the sugar production estimate for the year to 2.434 million metric tons (MT) from the inital projection of 2.356 MT made during the start of the cropping year because of good production.

At the start of the crop year, the SRA expected crop production to range between 2.356 million MT to 2.434 million MT. It adopted the lower range of the production outlook as an initial estimate.

“With good production figures being reported by our monitoring personnel, the SRA board deemed it appropriate to adopt at this time the higher range of the estimate,” said SRA administrator Ma. Regina Martin.

At the tail end of the current crop year, raw sugar production was 2.295 million MT as of April 14, 2013 up by 13.83 percent from 2.016 million MT in the same period last year.

Refined sugar production also rose by 10.78 percent from 775,523 MT to 859,131 MT in April 2013.

Sugar demand for the current crop year increased as expected during the election period.

Domestic raw sugar demand rose by 16.2 percent to 1.412 million MT.

Refined sugar demand also grew 11.65 percent to 615,496 MT.

Given good production numbers, the SRA is not revising its sugar allocation for the current crop year.

“With healthy production figures, the SRA board decided not to adopt any advance swapping or sugar conversion program for the remaining months of the crop year,” Martin said.

The SRA adopts sugar conversion programs when it needs to reallocate sugar from a particular classification to another to address supply concerns.

In the previous crop year, for instance, the agency adopted the advance swapping of “D” or world market sugar to “A” sugar due to additional US quota volume given to the Philippines.