DA studying ways to ensure timely arrival of imported sugar
The government is studying possible strategies that will allow the timely arrival of an additional 100,000 tons of sugar during the low supply period before the milling season in November.
The Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) said such strategies could be incorporated in the guidelines for the importation. “We might release the guidelines [this] week. We may adopt the same guidelines as the ones we used for the bidding of the 150,000 tons of sugar, but we want to hasten the process.”
SRA administrator Bernardo Trebol said late Friday that government had to conduct three biddings before traders took up the first tranche of 60,000 tons.
The second tranche of 90,000 tons was apportioned to private firms that shipped out the same volume in crop year 2008-09. The SRA did not name the companies.
“Maybe we can do some reallocation but there has to be some kind of bidding,” Trebol said.
The delay in the milling season caused by the El Niño weather phenomenon forced the SRA to recommend to Malacanang importing the additional 100,000 tons.
“Because of El Nino, canes are weak and low in sucrose, which discourages early milling. There is therefore a need to augment the buffer supply during these lean, off milling months,” he said.
The additional importation would increase the buffer stock to 330,000 tons and ensure that prices would not spiral up to unreasonable levels.
Initially, the SRA estimated production to be around 2.18 million tons, but because of the extent of the El Niño influence, actual production may drop to around 1.97 million tons.
“Compounding the situation is the increase in consumption by around 23 percent than the previous crop year, which adds pressure to sugar stocks,” said Trebol. The Philippines’ annual sugar consumption, including those of industries, is pegged at around 2 million tons.
The figures of the sugar producers association show the projected sugar yield for the current crop year is the first time since crop year 2002-03 that the Philippines will produce less than 2 million tons. The highest production was in crop year 2007-08 with 2.5 million tons. BusinessMirror
