SRA: El Niño scorches sugarcane farms in PHL
El Niño damages sugarcane in key areas like Negros, Batangas, affecting 2024-2025 harvest. Despite higher raw sugar output, shortfall concerns arise. SRA records 3,000-hectare increase in planted area. PSMA urges controlled sugar imports. IAC-IMO warns of domestic production decline. AO 20 aims to streamline import procedures. Department of Agriculture reports varying sugar prices in capital region.
The Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) said El Niño damaged sugarcane crops in top sugar-producing areas like Negros and Batangas.
SRA Administrator Pablo Luis Azcona said the current El Niño episode affected sugarcane that will be harvested in October, or a month after the start of crop year 2024-2025.
“This El Niño hit from November 2023 to present has greatly damaged the planted cane for the October 2024 harvest, and so far in Batangas, South Negros, and Mindanao, the October 2024 harvestable cane is suffering,” Azcona said in a statement.
“We are hoping for the rains to come soon, so that the 2024 to 2025 season will be as good as well.”
The Philippine Sugar Millers Association said the country’s raw sugar output as of April 14 reached 1.863 million metric tons (MMT), 3.57 percent higher than last year’s 1.799 MMT. The figure is also higher than the SRA’s production estimate of 1.85 MMT.
“The [Marcos] Administration’s effort to move the harvest cycle to September 1 from last year’s August to improve yield has proven its worth and we will continue to push for the original October 1 start of milling to further improve our cane quality,” said Azcona.
Despite the loss of area in Batangas, the SRA recorded a 3,000-hectare (ha) increase in planted area due to good farmgate prices from the past year’s crop, which he said encouraged more farmers to plant sugarcane.
“We were also lucky that El Niño only hit the tail end of the harvestable cane and the effect was negated by the increase in planted area,” said Azcona.
Meanwhile, PSMA asked the government to ensure that sugar imports would only fill the shortfall in domestic output and beef up buffer stocks.
“All we ask is that the volume to be imported is the deficiency in production including buffer stocks for contingencies and scheduled arrival of imports so as not to coincide with sugar milling,” PSMA President Terence Uygongco said in a statement.
The Inter-Agency Committee on Inflation and Market Outlook (IAC-IMO) said local production of key commodities, including sugar would fail to meet domestic demand this year following the decline of sugarcane production in 2022.
Uygongco said he expects that through Administrative Order (AO) 20, the SRA will carry out “a more predictable, simplified, transparent, and need-based import program.”
AO 20 is set to streamline administrative procedures and remove non-tariff barriers for agricultural commodities.
According to the Department of Agriculture’s latest price watch report, the average weekly price of sugar in the capital region is P84.59 per kilogram for refined; P76.60 per kg for washed; and P75.07 per kg for brown.
Source Link : https://businessmirror.com.ph/2024/05/06/sra-el-nino-scorches-sugarcane-farms-in-phl/
