Sugar production seen flat this year

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines has allocated bulk of its target production for the new crop year for the domestic market amid an expected relatively flat output, the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) said.

Based on SRA’s  latest sugar policy, 95 percent of the country’s sugar production will go to the domestic market, while the remaining five percent will be for the US market.

Sugar classified into “A”  are for export to the US, “B” for domestic consumption, “C” for reserves, “D” for export to countries other than the US and “E” for local food processors.

While production has been on the downtrend over the past years, allocation to the US is imperative as it continues to be a reliable market.

For the new crop year which started this month and will end in August next year, the Philippines expects to produce 2.096 million metric tons of sugar.

The lower production will likely prompt more sugar imports this crop year as the country needs to maintain at least 2.2 million MT in supply to meet local demand.

The SRA recently allowed the importation of 250,000 MT as the crop year nears closing last month.

This was the second round of importation following the 150,000 MT in October 2018 just when the crop year started.

The United States Department of Agriculture earlier projected that sugar consumption would increase to 2.3 million MT following a flat 2018 as sugar sweetened beverage consumption slowed due to higher taxes.