President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. approved May 15 an additional importation of sugar, following the recommendation of the Sugar Regulatory Administration to stabilize the price and boost the country’s stock.
“We agreed to additional importation of sugar to stabilize the prices. Maximum amount will be 150,000MT but probably less,” Marcos said after the meeting with SRA officials, led by acting administrator Pablo Luis Azcona, and millers’ representative to the Sugar Board, Ma. Mitzi Mangwang.
“The exact amount will be determined once we have determined the exact amount of supply, which will come at the end of this month,” Marcos said in a Presidential Communications Office statement, adding the government is opening the importation of sugar to all traders.
As per the SRA forecast inventory, the country will have a negative ending stock of 552,835MT by the end of August 2023, or the end of the milling season, and the importation of another 100,000MT to 150,000MT of sugar is necessary to avert a shortfall.
The SRA said that, as of May 7, the country has sufficient supply of raw sugar with a beginning stock of 160,000MT.
However, the country will still need to import an additional 100,000 to 150,000MT of sugar by this year because the expected local production of 2.4MMT and the 440,000MT allowed to be imported under Sugar Order 6, as well as the 64,050MT under the Minimum Access Volume (MAV) mechanism will not be able to cover the 3.1MMT demand.
Azcona also told the President that with the issuance of SO No. 6, sugar farmers are happy because they are benefiting from the stable farmgate price of raw sugar, which is averaging at P62/kg for the current crop year. This is higher than the P38/kg average farmgate price in CY 2021-2022, he added.
In order to improve productivity, Marcos said he also approved moving the start of the milling season from August to September this year. “That’s important for the corresponding increase in production by approximately 10 percent,” he added.
Azcona said opening the milling season in September will improve raw sugar recovery because it will minimize the milling of young canes.
Marcos likewise ordered the SRA to expedite block farming initiatives to also increase production. Block farming is a system by which small farm lots are consolidated into at least a 30-hectare-block farm. There are currently 21 block farms in the country, averaging at least 40 hectares each.
Once organized into block farms, farmers are entitled to financial and mechanization support for increased production.
“Consolidation is an important part of agro-industrial production. We’re looking at increasing the budget for block farming to accelerate the process of organizing the block farms,” Marcos said in a meeting also attended by Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, Presidential Legal Counsel Juan Ponce Enrile, and SRA Board Secretary Rodney Rubrica. | NND News Team
