-
President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. approved the importation of more sugar to stabilize the price and boost the country’s stock of the commodity
-
The exact volume is yet to be determined but should not exceed 150,000 metric tons
-
The Philippines will have a negative ending stock of 552,835 MT by end August 2023, the end of the milling season, and importation of another 100,000 MT to 150,000 MT of sugar is necessary to avert a shortfall
President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. approved additional sugar imports to stabilize the price and boost the country’s stock of the commodity.
The approval follows the recommendation of the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA), which Marcos chairs as agriculture secretary, Malacañang said in a statement.
“We agreed to additional importation of sugar to stabilize the prices. Maximum amount will be 150,000 [metric tons] MT but probably less,” Marcos said after the meeting with the SRA on May 15.
The President said the actual import volume will be determined once the amount of supply is determined at the end of this month.
According to the SRA forecast inventory, the Philippines will have a negative ending stock of 552,835 MT by the end of August 2023, the end of the milling season, and importation of another 100,000 MT to 150,000 MT of sugar is necessary to avert a shortfall.
The SRA said that as of May 7, 2023, the country has sufficient supply of raw sugar with a beginning stock of 160,000 MT. However, the country will still need to import an additional 100,000 to 150,000 MT of sugar by this year because the expected local production of 2.4 million MT and the 440,000 MT allowed to be imported under SRA Sugar Order (SO) No. 6, s. 2022-2023 as well as the 64,050 MT under the Minimum Access Volume (MAV) mechanism will not be able to cover the 3.1 million MT demand.
The government will open the importation of additional sugar to all traders.
SRA acting administrator Pablo Luis Azcona, meanwhile, said 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 per kilogram (kg) for the current crop year. It is higher than the P38 per kg average farmgate price in 2021-2022.
In order to improve productivity, Marcos said he also approved moving of the start of the milling season from August to September this year.
“That’s important for the corresponding increase in production by approximately 10%,” Marcos said.
Azcona said opening the milling season in September will improve raw sugar recovery because it will minimize the milling of young canes.
He also 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.
Marcos said 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,” he said.
