President and Agriculture Secretary Ferdinand “Bongbong” R. Marcos Jr. said the country may import sugar by October should the supply run out.

“Maari, bandang Oktubre, baka ‘yung supply ng na nandito sa Pilipinas ay paubos na, baka sakali ay kailangan nating mag-import (It is possible that, by October, the sugar supply here in the Philippines will run out, we may need to import),”the chief executive said in his vlog.

But Marcos noted that the country will not import 300,000 tons of sugar, but only about half as much, or 150,000 tons.

To recall, the Malacañang recently disallowed the Sugar Regulatory Board (SRB) Resolution No. 4, which authorized the importation of 300,000 metric tons of sugar on top of what had already been imported in May 2022, was signed on behalf of President Marcos and was later uploaded on the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) website. It was later taken down.

The President said that, when he checked, he saw that the country has an ample supply of sugar.

“So sabi ko, bakit hindi natin unahin ‘yan, dahil iyan ay galing dito sa Pilipinas. At mayroon na rin tayong na-import noon na nakaimbentaryo ngayon (So I said, why not consume this first, because this is from the Philippines. And we have imports from before that are now in inventory),” said Marcos.

“So bago tayo mag-import ng panibagong asukal, dapat, sabi ko, ubusin na muna natin ang supply dito (So before we import a new batch of sugar, I said, we should consume all our local supply here),” he continued.

Earlier, the SRA has warned that the country’s sugar supply may run out by August should the government prohibit the importation of sugar.