US seeks to import more sugar from the Philippines

The United States is planning to import more sugar from the Philippines after several exporters were not able to fill up their United States' (US) quota allocation this year, a development seen beneficial to the Philippines especially because local production is expected to improve this season.

Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) Administrator Ana Rosario Paner said the Philippines got additional sugar quota allocation of 63,830 metric tons (MT) from the US.

“At present, we are ready to ship out 53,000 MT. We are now talking with traders and local sugarcane farmers, who are currently holding Alpha quedan if they are willing to fill up the remaining volume for US exports,” Paner said yesterday.

Alpha or “A” sugar is a classification of sugar dedicated to exports meant for US market.

The additional allocation came in just in time when the country is expecting improved production for local sugar.

The Philippines is one of the select countries given a yearly allocation of sugar export to the US market at a premium under a tariff-rate quota.

Tariff-rate quota allows countries to export specified quantities of a product to US at a relatively low tariff.

Right now, the Philippines has a regular US quota of 136,827 MT for crop year ending August.

SRA earlier said that the domestic market remains as the priority market for locally produced sugar.

The agency even slashed sugar allocation to the US from the previous 8 percent to 6 percent of the total production amid uncertainties for an additional supply agreement with Washington at least for the current crop year.

SRA earlier allocated 92 percent for domestic use, while the remaining 8 percent was allocated for the US market in anticipation for an additional supply requirement from Washington.

But with the higher than expected production, Paner said the additional export commitment to Washington would help ease pressure declining prices of the commodity.

At present, sugar production for crop-year 2016 to 2017 has already reached 2.5 million MT, higher by 11.6 percent compared to the previous cropyear and exceeding forecast of 2.25 million metric tons.

Crop year starts September and ends August.