Sugar production has surpassed the target of 2.1 million metric tons for the current crop year, the Sugar Regulatory Administration said over the weekend.
SRA policy and planning manager Rosemarie Gumera said sugar production already reached 2.2 million MT as of May 25, The sugar crop year in the Philippines begins September and ends August of the following year.
“Production was slightly higher than what we expected, but we do not expect it to increase significantly until the crop year ends since only one sugar mill in Luzon remains in operation,” Gumera said.
SRA earlier said production for crop year 2015 to 2016 was expected to reach 2.15 to 2.19 million MT.
The target volume, however, was lower than the actual harvest of 2.32 million MT in last crop year. It was also lower compared to the earlier forecast of 2.25 to 2.35 million MT.
SRA said to ensure enough supply of sugar in the domestic market, it allowed the importation of additional 33,000 MT of sugar this year.
SRA administrator Ma. Regina Martin said the volume would be on top of the 133,000 MT of sugar imports earlier allowed by the agency.
SRA allowed sugar producers and traders to import as much as 133,000 MT of sugar to replace the volume that would be shipped to the United States.
The Philippines received a regular US sugar quota allocation of 142,000 MT raw value for crop year 2015 to 2016 under the tariff-rate quota system where the Philippines is one of the countries that could export to the US at a low tariff.
Martin said for the additional requirements, only sugar traders who exported in the US would be allowed to import.
“The sugar will come from Thailand. This will be done in a staggered basis until June of this year,” Martin said.