SRA chief reports ‘significant decline’ in refined sugar production this year

THE Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) on Tuesday reported a “significant decline” in the production of refined sugar this year.

“Our current stocks, we are about 13 percent better on a month-on-month comparison, based last year’s [inventory] on raw sugar, but last year there was June production. This year 13 percent better but [there is no] June production, so that’s an alarming situation,” Pablo Luis Azcona, acting administrator and CEO of SRA told reporters.

“The farmers need to keep their farm-gate price at P60 so that they will continue farming and they will continue to make a profitable business. Personally, I have been suggesting for a Suggested Retail Price [SRP],” he added.

“As of now, we can see the retail price is gradually going down, farm-gate [price] since January went down by P60,” Azcona said.

“We want to maintain an SRP of P85 [per kilogram] in the retail [market],” he said.

Based on DA’S price monitoring, refined sugar in Metro Manila retails from P86 to P110 per kg compared to only P70 per kg a year ago.

The last time the DA implemented an SRP for agricultural goods was in November 2020 when the suggested price is P50 per kg for refined sugar and P45 per kg for brown sugar.

Earlier, the SRA board lowered its sugar production estimates for this crop year, with shortfall to be addressed by the importation program and released in a calibrated manner to lower retail prices and protect farmers.

Azcona said the board is projecting raw sugar production to reach 1.831 million metric tons (MT) in crop year 2022-2023.

The figure is slightly lower than the pre-final crop estimate of 1.834 million MT released last December.

In its pre-crop year estimate, sugar production was projected to reach 1.876 million MT.

“For this year, we are expecting a projected production of 1.831 million…but our demand is a lot more. We feel that the 440,000 MT is just right to cover this year’s lack of sugar. This will cover from now until we begin milling next year,” Azcona said.