The Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) hopes to resume exports to the United States after three years of failing to do so.
Last July, the Office of the United States Trade Representative retained the Philippines’ sugar export quota under the tariff-rate quota (TRQ) on imported raw cane sugar for fiscal year 2024 at 145,235 metric tons (MT).
The country’s quota for Oct. 1, 2023 through Sept. 30, 2024 is the third largest allocation following Brazil’s 155,993 MT and Dominican Republic’s 189,343 MT.
TRQ allow countries to export specified quantities of a product to the US at a relatively low tariff but subject all imports of the product above a pre-determined threshold to a higher tariff.
The Philippines is one of those countries given with an annual allocation of sugar export to the US market at a premium.
“We are trying to find ways, it’s very hard to justify because we are importing. However, we import refined sugar and the US market needs raw which is locally produced,” said
Pablo Azcona, SRA acting administrator, at the sidelines of a forum in Makati City last week.
Stakeholders have pushed the idea of meeting the quota on fears the Philippines will altogether lose the Us market.
But Azcona said “whoever proposed the idea should come up with a very good proposal.”
“Number one, export should not affect farm gate price… i’m just waiting for the proposal from the various stakeholders, so we can see if we really need to do it,” he said.
Azcona said it “is so hard to lose the US market” in the face of a deficit every year.
“ US is a premium market compared to the world market and if you’re a local farmer, domestic is always highest, US is next, then lowest price is world market,” Azcona said.
The SRA said sugar production is expected to increase by at least 50,000 MT in crop year 2023-2024 with additional hectares of land planted with sugarcane.
Raw sugar production in 2022-2023 was down 1.6 percent to 1.79 million MT from 1.82 million MT the previous crop year.
Azcona cautioned sugar production could fall 10 to 15 percent if the effects of El Niño will be extreme.
