Philippines: Sugar industry expects adequate supply despite import freeze until 2025

SUGAR producers said the supply of refined and raw sugar will be sufficient even after the government announced an import freeze until the middle of 2025. “We do have sufficient supply of sugar — raw and refined — despite the drop in production,” United Sugar Producers Federation of the Philippines President Manuel R. Lamata said via Viber. Last week, the Department of Agriculture and the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) said they intend to postpone refined sugar imports. The SRA has said that raw sugar production during the current crop year would decline by 7.2% from a year earlier due to crop damage sustained during the dry conditions brought about by El Niño. Mr. Lamata added he sees the need to import sugar by October 2025. The Sugar Council and the National Congress of Unions in the Sugar Industry of the Philippines have noted however that mill gate prices for raw sugar have declined. “An apparent decrease in demand has consequently caused the steady drop in prices,” ...