The sugar industry expects sufficient supply despite the freeze in some countries until 2025

Sugar producers say the supply of refined and raw sugar will be sufficient even after the government announced that it will freeze imports until mid-2025.

“We have enough supply of sugar – raw and refined – despite the decline in production,” United Sugar Producers Federation of the Philippines President Manuel R. Lamata said via Viber.

Last week, the Ministry of Agriculture and the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) said they intend to postpone the purchase of refined sugar.

The SRA said the production of raw sugar this crop year will decrease by 7.2% from last year due to crop damage caused by drought caused by El Niño.

Mr. Lamata added that he sees the need to import sugar into the country by October 2025.

The Sugar Council and the National Congress of Unions in the Philippine sugar industry have however noted that the gate prices for raw sugar mills have fallen.

“The obvious drop in demand is what caused the drop in prices,” the groups said in a joint statement.

They added that a large amount of raw sugar is withdrawn for refining, despite the stable availability of refined sugar.

“It does not make business sense for refiners to release raw sugar. Hence, its demand is decreasing and the mill gate prices have come down,” it added.

According to the SRA, the stock of raw sugar reached 148,255 metric tons (MT), while that of refined sugar stood at 323,923 MT as of Oct. 20.

The Sugar Council said the drop in demand may be due to the increased consumption of sweets by the drinks industry.

Earlier, the SRA said it would look at the actual volume of other sweeteners and, if necessary, require them to get approval as well.

In September, the regulator had raised the licensing fee for High Fructose Corn Syrup to P30 per equivalent bag of sugar from P1.5 per bag.

Under tariff code 17.02 of the ASEAN Harmonized Tariff Nomenclature, only high fructose corn syrup is regulated. Artificial sweeteners are accepted at zero duty under the ASEAN Trade in Goods Agreement. – Adrian H. Halili