Philippines : P2.4B budget seen for sugar industry in 2026; No importation plan, SRA says
Congress is expected to allocate ₱2.4 billion for the sugar industry in the 2026 national budget, Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. said. The Sugar Regulatory Administration proposed raising annual funding under the Sugarcane Industry Development Act to ₱5 billion to modernize mills and mechanize farms, while ruling out importation until mid-2026.
Congress is expected to allocate P2.4 billion for the sugar industry in the 2026 national budget, Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. said on Wednesday, October 8.
Laurel, speaking at a Senate Committee on Finance Subcommittee J hearing, said the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) allocated P1 billion for the industry in the National Expenditure Program for 2026 and the Lower House approved an additional P1.4 billion.
If the Senate approves it the industry will be granted P2.4 billion in 2026.
Laurel told the senators that the Sugarcane Industry Development Act of 2015 needs amendments for more flexibility in the use the funds approved by Congress to improve the sugar industry’s productivity.
Administrator Pablo Luis Azcona of the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) suggested that the annual SIDA allocation for the sugar industry be increased from P2 billion to P5 billion.
He cited the need for modernization of mills and farm mechanization, among other improvements, to boost production.
Senator Joseph Victor Ejercito, one of the authors of the SIDA in 2015, asked the Department of Agriculture and the SRA to submit their recommended amendments so they can be acted on.
Meanwhile, Azcona said there are no plans for sugar importation now.
The National Federation of Sugarcane Planters is standing firm against any further sugar importation, as any additional volume would be “suicidal to the sugar industry,” NFSP president Enrique D. Rojas said in a statement on Tuesday.
“Secretary Laurel and I have agreed that there will be absolutely no talks of a sugar importation until May or June 2026, when we already have concrete production numbers. Only then will we decide if we need imports or not, unless there is an obvious need for such,” Azcona said.
“Real farmers know for a fact that any talk of importation brings speculation and lowers the farmer’s sugar price, so we do not do it during the milling season. That is why I don’t understand where these statements (on importation) are coming from,” he said.
Azcona said “Maybe their main intention is to lower the farmer price and destabilize the sugar industry”.
All importation under his administration have been consultative, calibrated, and objectively allocated based on performance, and this is clearly evidenced by stable farmgate and retail prices, Azcona said.
In the past three years under President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., both farmgate/millgate and retail prices of sugar has been stable and there has been a large increase in planted area, he added.
Azcona said that before the Marcos administration, sugarland decreased from 420,000 hectares to 380,000 hectares in 2022. He said under the Marcos administration, it has grown to 403,000 hectares in 2025.
Production has increased as well, he said.
“That is a clear indicator of stable and favorable farmer price, hence farmers choose to plant more sugarcane. That is why we should always be careful about our statements, unless our goal is to lower farmer price,” he added.*
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Source : Digicast Negros
