By CESAR JOLITO III
All sugar produced in the next crop year will be allocated exclusively for the domestic market, the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) announced yesterday, in a policy shift aimed at ensuring stable local supply and prices.
SRA Administrator Pablo Luis Azcona, during the 71st Philippine Sugar Technologists Association Convention in Cebu City, said the move aligns with the government’s goal of strengthening food security and reducing reliance on imports.
Total raw sugar production as of July 27 reached 2.084 million metric tons (MT) with almost 26 million MT of canes milled, SRA data showed.
These are derived from a total of 405,000 hectares of sugarcane farms, of which 392,000 hectares were planted for sugar, while 13,000 hectares are for bioethanol.
Azcona also confirmed that the official start of the milling season will be on October 1 or the Monday closest to that date, marking the completion of a three-year transition to bring milling back to the last quarter of the year.
Since October 1 falls on a Wednesday this year, the season may instead open on September 29.
P8 billion farm support
The SRA, in coordination with Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr., is seeking an P8 billion budget for a three-year soil rejuvenation and small-scale irrigation program covering 160,000 hectares.
“This is crucial along with our other proposal, including P1.2 billion for 20,000 hectares dedicated to the propagation of high-yielding variety plantlets,” Tiu Laurel said.
Azcona said these measures will sustain the production gains of recent years, which he attributed largely to the distribution of improved cane varieties and the adoption of science-based farming methods from foreign partners.
“The SRA intends to focus on this along with other scientific approaches to farming that we have been learning from our foreign partners towards our self-sustainability,” Azcona said.
Meanwhile, Azcona said the industry is poised to receive a P1 billion allocation from the Sugar Industry Development Act fund next year, but stakeholders are pushing to raise the annual funding ceiling from P2 billion to P5 billion to reflect the sector’s contribution to the economy.
International cooperation programs with Japan and Brazil are underway, with the SRA exploring varietal exchanges and propagation partnerships with other major sugar-producing nations.
RSSI threat
Despite the upbeat outlook in the sugar industry, the SRA warned of the red striped soft-scale insect (RSSI) infestation already affecting over 3,200 hectares in Negros and Panay.
Field inspections are ongoing, with the pest potentially capable of slashing sugar content by up to 50 percent, based on studies abroad.
“These are validated field inspections, but the figures could be much higher, and its effects on our sugar canes are not yet known,” Azcona said.
The SRA will soon start testing the sugar content of recovered canes.
According to the latest SRA report, as of August 1, 3,284.80 hectares of sugarcane fields across five Visayan provinces have been affected by RSSI.
Of these, Negros Occidental remains the hardest hit, with 3,184 hectares impacted, affecting 1,754 farmers across 144 barangays in 23 localities.
In total, 1,831 farmers in 176 barangays across 36 towns and cities have been affected by the outbreak.
Negros Occidental is one of the country’s leading sugar-producing provinces, making pest infestations a critical threat to the livelihoods of thousands of farmers and workers dependent on the industry./CJ, WDJ