MANILA – To ensure the stable supply of sugar, the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) revised its sugar allocation this year.
The initial projection of national sugar production of 12.9 million metric tons (MT) dropped to 2.10 million MT due to prolonged La Niña weather phenomenon that affected sugar-producing provinces, especially in Negros Occidental particularly in Silay, F.B Magalona, Victoria, Manapla, and Cadiz, SRA said.
“La Niña was more severe than initially expected that it brought heavy rains in all sugar-producing regions even flooding in several sugarcane fields,” it said in its statement on Monday.
It added that the weather phenomenon lowered the sugar content in cane – from 1.87 LKg/TC (50-kilo bag per ton cane) to 1.71 LKg/TC.
The country’s sugar crop year starts in September and ends in August of the following year.
Each start of the crop year, SRA is mandated to regulate the local sugar industry, deciding how much of the country’s expected sugar production will be for domestic consumption and how much will be exported to the world market to balance the prices.
For this crop year, SRA decided that seven percent or 153,000 MT of the country’s Class “A” sugar output will be exported to the United States (US), while the remaining 93 percent or 1.97 million MT will be for Class “B” or domestic sugar.
SRA decided to increase to 100 percent the Class “B” sugar and scrap the US allocation due to the drop in sugar production.
The order takes effect immediately covering sugar production of the week ending on April 4, 2021 and subsequent week ending of the crop year 2020-2021.(PNA/PN)
