August 15, 2025 | 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines — The nation’s whole sugar manufacturing for the upcoming crop yr will likely be allotted solely once more for home consumption, based on the Sugar Regulatory Administration.
SRA administrator and CEO Pablo Luiz Azcona mentioned all sugar produced in crop yr 2025-2026 can be labeled as B or home sugar.
Following a three-year transition interval, Azcona mentioned the Philippines is ready to maneuver the beginning of the milling season to Oct. 1, pushing it a month later from the normal Sept. 1 schedule.
Since Oct. 1 falls on a Wednesday, the SRA official indicated that the sugar crop yr may start on Sept. 29, Monday.
By the issuance of the primary order in every crop yr, the SRA board determines how the regionally produced uncooked sugar will likely be allotted and offered, usually based mostly on a supply-demand evaluation.
The output is classed for particular functions: A for export to the US, B for home consumption, C for reserved sugar and D for export to the world market.
The B classification for the subsequent crop yr, marking the sixth time in a row, goals to make sure native shares as present manufacturing stays inadequate to fulfill home demand.
As of July, the entire uncooked sugar manufacturing reached 2.08 million metric tons (MT), based on SRA information.
The final time sugar manufacturing went previous the two-million mark was within the crop yr 2020-2021, when the entire output reached 2.14 million MT.
Throughout a latest conference in Cebu, Azcona mentioned the SRA and Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. are set to suggest an P8-billion funds for soil rejuvenation and small-scale irrigation to spice up the trade.
“Our productiveness up to now three years was largely as a result of distribution of high-yielding selection canes, and SRA intends to concentrate on this together with different scientific approaches to farming that we now have been studying from our overseas companions in the direction of our self-sustainability,” Azcona mentioned.
Amid pest infestation, Azcona has additionally urged sugar farmers to remain vigilant and work intently with the SRA in stopping the red-striped gentle scale insect (RSSI) unfold.
The RSSI infestation was mentioned to have unfold in over 3,200 hectares of sugarcane in Panay and Negros Island.
“These are validated area inspections, however the figures might be a lot larger, and its results on our sugarcane will not be but identified,” Azcona mentioned.