SRA scraps sugar allocation for world market; most production for local use

The Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) finally succumbed to pressure and gave in to the call of stakeholders to scrap the country’s allocation of the local sugar production to world market exports so that bulk of the output can now be sold locally.

This move has required SRA to issue yet again another Sugar Order, implementing such re-allocation. This would be applicable to the current crop year, which starts every September and ends in August.

SRA Board Member Roland Beltran said that during a special board meeting, the agency has approved Sugar Order 1-B, which increased the allocation of sugar production to local market, or “B” sugar, to 94 percent from 93 percent.

The SRA Board also maintained an allocation of 6 percent to United States, or “A” sugar, leaving nothing to the world market sugar or “D”.

“No more for D,” Beltran said in a text message.

To recall, the SRA, as of last month, was still fighting about the world market allocation despite pressures from some stakeholders as well as a possible lower sugar output for this crop year.

This, as the country wants to retain its foothold in the world market in terms of sugar exports, Beltran said.

According to him, some stakeholders, during the annual meeting of the National Federation of Sugarcane Planters (NFSP) in Bacolod, indeed raised some issues relating to Sugar Order No. 1-A, which allotted 1 percent of the local sugar production to the world market.

To be exact, SRA just implemented SO 1-A in January, which reduced the allocation to “A” sugar from 10 percent to 6 percent, while the allocation to “D” sugar was also cut to 1 percent from 10 percent.

Such adjustment was made as the SRA sees a “slightly” down output for this crop year. To be specific, sugar production for the crop year 2017 to 2018 is seen to go down to 2.27 million metric tons (MT) due to heavy rains experienced in Visayas and Mindanao.

Beltran explained before that “it is not easy to penetrate the world market, especially China” so it’s important to keep the allocation for them despite low production.

“To do away with D is giving up on the gains achieved in penetrating the world market. If there will be surplus in the next crop year, how are we going to flush it out that we abandoned the program for D?” Beltran further said.

Meanwhile, SRA already decided how to go about the unused high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) stocks of Pepsi Cola Products Philippines, Inc. (PCPPI) — which stood around 15,000 metric tons (MT) — that are currently stuck in the Bureau of Customs (BOC).

“[PCPPI’s unused HFCS stocks were] reclassified from D to B not for commercial use but to be destroyed in accordance with its disposal plan,” Beltran said.