The proposed importation of 440,000 metric tons (MT) of refined sugar has been designated as reserve sugar and will arrive in three separate batches, according to the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA).
SRA planters’ representative Pablo Azcona said the first batch involving 100,000 metric tons is scheduled to arrive early while the next 100,000 MT and the final 240,000 MT were to follow later.
“All three will be arriving as reserve. The authority to convert and make them available to the market is left with the Sugar Board,” Azcona said on Tuesday.
Their arrival is designed to ease price pressures on the commodity that at the moment retails for around P85 a kilo in the various markets.
According to Azcona, the retail price of the imported sugar variety is much lower than its locally produced counterpart and that sugar imports as percent of total local production is small. The hope is for the disparity in prices will work to the advantage of consumers, “hopefully giving the retail consumers a better price.”
He acknowledged entertaining fears as farming sector representative at the SRA that the price of sugar “will drop to the point they will no longer make money and stop planting.”
He also gave assurance the reserve sugar is available not just for retail consumers but the industrial users of the commodity as well, adding that the release of stocks is calibrated so that local producers remain interested in improving their production and yield.
The SRA said that based on current projections, domestic sugar production for crop year 2022-2023 will likely range from 1.831 million MT to 1.84 million MT.
The latest projection is lower by as much as 2 percent from SRA’s earlier projection of 1.88 million MT for the current crop year.
However, the SRA’s updated projection is still 2.8 percent higher than the previous crop year’s 1.79 million MT.
The SRA said the government also separately approved the importation of 64,050 MT of sugar under the minimum access volume (MAV) mechanism and enjoy minimal tariff as a result. The caveat is that government is making sure this does not add to much to the anticipated 440,000 MT and by this measure flood the market with supply.
Prior to this, the government made sugar available through the MAV system for the first and only time back in 2002.
The prevailing retail price of sugar as of Tuesday range from P87 to P110 per kilo for refined sugar and P80 to P95 per kg for both washed and brown sugar.
Raw sugar is priced at P3,473.17 per 50-kilo bag.
