MANILA, Philippines — Farmers belonging to the National Federation of Sugarcane Planters (NFSP) are supporting the government’s decision to allocate all the raw sugar production in the current crop year for domestic use as output remains insufficient to meet total demand.
The NFSP said that the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) board’s decision to go for 100 percent B sugar allocation in crop year 2024-2025 bodes well for planters as it would provide them with “more favorable” prices compared to other sugar classifications.
The SRA, through its mandate, classifies the sale of raw sugar production in the country in a given crop year.
The SRA board, the agency’s highest policy-making body, usually classifies raw sugar output into four: A for raw sugar to be exported to the US, B for domestic consumption, C for reserved sugar and D for export to the world market.
“With the expected shortfall of domestic sugar production versus the estimated domestic demand, it is a good move on the part of the Sugar Regulatory Administration to allocate all domestic sugar production as B sugar for the domestic market,” NFSP president Enrique Rojas said yesterday.
“We are hoping that the weather for the rest of the crop year will be favorable to give us an opportunity to recover the projected production shortfall,” Rojas added.
The SRA board earlier issued Sugar Order 1, which outlined the production policy for the new crop year that began on Sept. 1.
The SRA projected that domestic raw sugar production in the current crop year could drop to a 25-year low as sugarcane farms reeled from the effects of El Niño, resulting in stunted growth of sugarcanes.
The extreme weather condition forced sugarcane planters to cut their crops and replant to have better sugar yield.
The government agency estimated that the production shortfall would be around 420,000 metric tons as local demand would reach about 2.2 million MT, outpacing the projected output of 1.78 million MT.
Industry sources said retail sugar prices shall remain stable as carry-over stocks coupled with forthcoming arrival of imported refined sugar would uplift domestic supplies, negating the foreseen drop in domestic output.