Local sugar output poised to breach 2M MT
Local sugar output is poised to breach 2 million metric tons (MT) this crop year 2024-2025 as the sector continues to recover from the prolonged dry spell caused by the El Niño phenomenon.
If achieved, domestic production will be 12.2-percent higher than the initial output forecast of 1.782 million MT and 8.7 percent more than the updated estimate of 1.840 million MT.
The last time that sugar output surpassed the 2 million MT was in crop year 2020-2021 when the volume totaled 2.143 million MT.
“We were very prudent in our projection because we just came out of a very long drought due to the El Niño and yet, our canes recovered nicely, not to mention the stable sugar prices we’ve had through most of this season,” SRA Administrator Pablo Luis Azcona said during the SRA’s 39th founding anniversary celebration.
Azcona said the massive production and distribution of high-yielding varieties contributed to the improved output for the current crop year.
“Personally, I was not a believer of SRA varieties in the past, but without a doubt, we have produced very high quality cane varieties that increased our production output,” he said.
In the Philippines, the sugar crop year traditionally begins in September and ends in August of the following year. But recently, the harvest season was adjusted to Oct. 1 to give canes more time to mature.
Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. said the production improvement came from “a very responsive SRA,” and lauded the employees for exceeding his expectations “and now works like a system where everyone is doing their part for the good of the whole.”
Initially, the SRA lowered its projection following the anticipated negative effect of El Niño on local harvests.
Eventually, the regulator revised its production outlook because of the higher sugarcane tonnage per hectare planted amid lower sugar producer per ton of cane (LKGTC).
LKGTC measures the sugar yield or the amount of raw sugar produced from one metric ton of sugarcane.
The country has so far produced 1.997 million MT of raw sugar as of June 1, up by 3.91 percent from 1.992 million MT in the same period last year, data from the SRA showed.
Sugar production peaked at 2.5 million MT in the crop year 2016-2017, the highest since the 2010s.
For many years, sugar output remained at the 2 million MT level before declining to 1.820 million MT in crop year 2021 to 2022.
