The Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) Board has ordered the importation of 200,000 metric tons of sugar to ensure stable prices after considering shortfall in local production following the damages sustained by sugar plantation from Typhoon Odette and in anticipation of stronger demand.
The SRA Board, which is chaired by Agriculture Secretary William Dar, issued Sugar Order No. 3 for Crop Year 2021-2022 on Feb. 4, 2022, allowing the importation of 200,000 metric tons of standard and bottler’s grade refined sugar after considering the shortfall on the ending balance of refined sugar.
Based on the order, the Board said the order was issued after assessing the damage caused by typhoon “Odette” to sugarcane crops, sugar stocks at warehouses, as well as facilities and equipment of sugar mills and refineries in key sugar milling districts.
The SRA recalibrated showed a pre-final crop estimate of raw sugar production to 2.072 MT down from the 2.099 MT pre-final crop estimate prior to “Odette”.
In addition, the Philippine Association of Sugar Refineries also revised its refined sugar production forecast for Crop Year 2021-2022 to 16.748 million LKg, down from the initial production estimate of 17.572 million LKg before Typhoon “Odette.”
According to SRA's projections on sugar supply and demand, the allowed sugar imported sugar is will give the country a very tight sugar stock balance at the end of milling which will not be enough to cover the two to three months demand for refined sugar in between the milling seasons.
Recently, SRA monitoring of sugar prices also recorded wholesale prices for both raw and refined sugar have increased to record highs. Likewise, retail sugar prices were also up.
SRA Administrator Hermenegildo Serafica noted in a statement that as the economy is once again starting to open up, “the demand for raw sugar and refined sugar for January this year have also increased when compared to the same month in the three previous years.”
Hence the need to augment sugar stocks to ensure food security and availability of sugar to cover sugar demand until the next crop year or milling season begins again, he said.
A sugar crop year starts September 1 and ends August 31 of the following year. However, SRA said, sugar mills and refineries generally stop operations around May to June and the mills start operations for the next season around September to October while the refineries start around two weeks after the mills.
The 200,00 MT of refined sugar will cover the shortfall on the supply and will leave the country with enough buffer stock to tide over until the start of the next milling season, SRA said.
During a stakeholder’s consultation conducted by SRA, stakeholders posed no objection to an importation program, while they recommended its mechanics, type of sugar to be imported, and arrival dates of shipments, among others.
SRA said that eligible participants to this open and voluntary importation program are industrial users of refined sugar in good standing and duly registered international traders.
An industrial user that is not registered with SRA as an international trader, may appoint an international sugar trader in good standing to import for its account, SRA said.
Complete applications may be filed with the SRA Regulation Department either in Quezon City or in Bacolod City not later than 5 pm on February 14, 2022.