- CHERYL G. CRUZ
The Sugar Regulatory Administration has ordered that all sugar production for crop year 2023-2024, expected to be 1.85 million metric tons, shall be for domestic use.
In Sugar Order 1, dated Aug. 29, and made public Sept. 11, the SRA said production for CY 2023-2024, from Sept. 1, 2023 to Aug. 31, 2024, “shall be quedanned by the mill companies as 100 percent “B” or domestic market sugar”.
The order, signed by SRA administrator Pablo Luis Azcona, DA senior undersecretary Domingo Panganiban, Ma. Mitzi Mangwang – SRA Board member representing the millers, and David Andrew Sanson for the planters, noted that total raw sugar production for CY 2023-2024 is estimated at 1.85 million metric tons, with a projected drop in production of 10 to 15 percent, depending on the severity of the anticipated El Nino phenomenon, which the DOST-PAGASA has determined for this crop year.
Total domestic raw sugar withdrawal, meanwhile, is estimated at about 2.20 million metric tons, the SRA said, adding that it is “mandated to institute measures and ensure the stability of “B” or domestic sugar supply… (as well as) stabilized prices at levels reasonably profitable to the producers and fair to consumers”.
The SRA shall undertake periodic assessment of the sugar production and withdrawals trend….and may, from time to time, adjust the percentage allocation/distribution to other classes of sugar, in accordance with its power and function and to establish domestic, export, and reserve allocation, it added./CGC
