The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business
By Rose de la Cruz
Just when milling of sugarcane is starting to peak this month, the decision to import sugar from abroad has been put on hold to prevent local prices from plunging just like in recent years.
The Department of Agriculture said sugar importation has been held until May 2025 following the conclusion of the current crop year’s harvest and that there is no immediate need for additional stocks from outside since domestic supply of both raw and refined sugar would be sufficient local demands.
“Given the current situation, Sugar Regulatory Administrator Azcona and I agreed that a decision on sugar importation could be delayed until after May when the current harvest season ends,” said Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel’s statement.
Sugar Regulatory Authority (SRA) Administrator Pablo Luis Azcona seconded this, noting that the harvest season for the crop only recently began.
“Our supply for both raw and refined sugar are stable and we are just beginning our harvest season, so [Secretary] Laurel and I agreed to delay the decision on sugar imports until after harvest sometime in May,” Azcona said.
Azcona said the current harvest season started slowly, with total cane volume reaching only a third of the amount harvested around the same period in the last crop year due to lower sugar content per metric ton (MT) of cane because of El Niño, Business Mirror reported.
“Farmers had to delay their harvests to allow the cane to mature further and increase sugar content,” he said.
The DA said the prolonged dry spells of El Niño resulted in the cane being physiologically immature, which resulted in a 16-percent lower sugar content per MT of cane and constrained sugar output despite an increase in planting areas.
Citing SRA data, the DA said the area planted for sugar cane this year increased slightly to 389,461 hectares from 388,378 hectares the previous crop year.
The SRA earlier projected that this crop year’s sugar output will drop by 7.2 percent to 1.78 million metric tons (MMT) from the previous year’s 1.92 MMT. The current crop year kicked off on September 1 and will end in August next year.
“[The projection] is based on the effect of El Niño on standing crops—those that were planted from October 2023 to May this year,” Azcona said.
However, the USDA said sugar production is projected to reach 1.85 MMT on the back of improving weather conditions which would allow the expansion in harvest area.
“Improvement in weather conditions from the previous El Niño is expected to provide better production in MY [marketing year] 2025,” the USDA said in its latest report.