Philippines sugar industry: From crisis to destruction
The Philippine sugar industry faces a deepening crisis as falling millgate prices, rising imports, and weak policy implementation threaten farmers’ livelihoods. Despite sugarcane’s economic importance, productivity remains low and support programs lag. Lawmakers are now pushing investigations and policy reforms to revive the sector and protect millions dependent on the industry.
WITH the war in the Middle East spreading like wildfire, it seems like a lifetime ago that we watched Bad Bunny perform at the Super Bowl halftime show. Yet it has been only a month since the musician emerged from a recreated Puerto Rican sugarcane field — complete with machete-wielding farmworkers — at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California.
The sugarcane field reminded me of the Philippines. Negros in particular. The island produces about 63 percent of domestic sugar. The rest comes from Mindanao (24 percent), Panay, Luzon and Cebu.
While sugarcane’s share of the value of national agricultural production is modest, the sugar industry plays a vital role in the economy, even as importation of sugar and artificial sweeteners has increased. The industry is “a pillar of our national economy and the lifeblood of millions,” the Binalbagan Isabela Planters Association (BIPA) Inc. said in an official statement dated March 3. Yet, according to the planters, we “are witnessing the systematic destruction” of this pillar, “while the very government agencies mandated to protect us stand by in a state of paralyzed indifference.”
Millgate prices have been declining for months, reaching below the cost of production. Sugarcane production has increased despite devastating typhoons, but mills are processing less. BIPA blames the over-importation of refined sugar and some unscrupulous traders taking advantage of the situation.
The Sugar Regulatory Administration has betrayed its charter, BIPA goes on. It has failed to fully implement the Sugarcane Industry Development Act of 2015 (RA 10659). Among the programs contained in this law are research in and the development and dispersal of new sugarcane varieties, new farming technologies, among others. These programs are supposed to help increase productivity and lower the cost of local sugar.
Yield per hectare in the Philippines is low when compared to other sugarcane-producing countries. Brazil, the world’s top sugarcane producer, had a yield per hectare of 72.9 tons in 2025. The Philippines’ was 55.33 tons per hectare as of early 2025 (Paulino A Oñal and colleagues, 2025). In 1990, the yield per hectare was 79.3 tons. Peru, Guatemala, Senegal and Egypt have yields per hectare above 100 tons (2018).
Of course, a high yield per hectare isn’t everything, though the figures mirror the perennial crisis afflicting the Philippine sugar industry. Another factor is the purity level measured in sugar per ton of cane. Prolonged drought leads to reduced levels of sugar in the cane. Less sugar to extract means less income for the planters and farmers. Research into and development of varieties that produce higher yields and have higher sugar content, and are resistant to pests and diseases, drought, extreme temperatures, and other abiotic stress factors have been undertaken. It is not clear if there have been tangible results. The development of new crop varieties takes years and includes lengthy and numerous field trials as well.
The hundreds of thousands of farmers and farmworkers cannot wait for these developments to translate into higher yields and incomes. The millgate price collapse began last year. Three separate House resolutions calling for inquiries into the crisis were filed by Javi Benitez (3rd district, Negros Occidental) as early as Oct. 13 last year; Howard Guintu (1st district, Capiz) on Dec. 9; and Audrey Kay Zubiri (3rd district, Bukidnon) on Jan. 26. The three district representatives share a grave concern for the loss of livelihood and wider effects of the economy in sugar-producing areas. Let’s not forget that Negros Occidental — Sugarlandia, the Sugar Bowl of the Philippines — with a poverty incidence among the population of 32.7 percent (2023, excluding Bacolod City), has one of the highest poverty rates in the country. Poverty rose post-Covid pandemic. The province suffered severe drought in connection with the 2023-2024 El Niño. Crops were then hit by pests. The on-and-off eruptions of Mt. Kanlaon have also put a strain on affected LGUs, with forced mass evacuations and damage to agricultural lands and crops.
The House Committee on Agriculture and Food conducted its first hearing last Feb. 25. Roland de la Cruz, president of the National Congress of Unions in the Sugar Industry in the Philippines (Nacusip), demanded the immediate replacement of the Sugar Regulatory Administrator and the representatives of planters and millers in the Philippines Sugar Board. De la Cruz also called for the government to establish a buying program to ensure decent prices for farmers and workers.
Sen. Risa Hontiveros wants the Senate to not only look into the current crisis but also to review the charter of the SRA and the implementation of RA 10659. The law needs updating, Hontiveros stressed in a Senate resolution filed on Feb. 11, to “address the persistent problems of the industry,” changes in both local and world markets, and climate change-induced extreme weather events.
The law has failed to meet its objectives, that is, to improve productivity, competitiveness and incomes. Reviews of RA 10659 and the SRA charter are the first steps towards a major overhaul of policies, structures and implementation. Enough of “paralyzed indifference.”
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Source : The Manila Times
