MANILA, (PNA) — The Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) is expecting sugar production to reach 2.45 million metric tons (MT) for crop year 2013-2014.
The SRA has issued Sugar Order No. 1 allocating production into the following percentages: 86 percent for domestic market, 12 percent for world market and 2 percent for the United States market.
Domestic demand is estimated at around 2.1 million MT for the coming crop year.
The agency is also encouraging the use of “D” or world market sugar for bio-ethanol production in pursuit of its mandate to expand marketing of sugar and its by-products.
“The price situation in the world market remains volatile, and the bio-ethanol mandate could very well absorb the surplus sugar at viable price levels,” SRA Administrator Regina Bautista-Martin said.
Data from the SRA show that sugar production reached 2.457 million MT which is up by 9.5 percent year-on-year.
The Philippines’ regular U.S. quota allocation is 138,000 tons. Only 53,690 MT were shipped to the US market due to oversupply and competition from Mexico which enjoys zero-tariff and zero-quota on its sugar exports to the US.
Actual shipments to the world market totaled 140,000 MT.