Sugar output in the Philippines for the ongoing crop year is likely to be lower than estimates, said the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) board and stated that the shortfall will be addressed by importing the required amount of sugar, reports Reuters.
SRA board member-planters’ Representative Pablo Luis Azcona said the board has predicted the sugar production for 2022-23 to be around 1.831 million metric tons (MT).
Last December the projections for sugar output were 1.834 million MT.
The sugar production in its pre-crop year estimates was projected to be 1.876 million MT.
“We are expecting the importation of 440,000 MT of sugar to be sufficient to meet the domestic demand as the sugar output continues to remain lower this season,” he said.
The SRA board had earlier projected the raw sugar withdrawal to reach 2.03 million MT this year but the latest projections are still higher than the 1.82 million MT of raw sugar produced in the previous crop year.
