The Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) has issued an order allowing the voluntary exportation of 66,000 metric tons (MT) of raw sugar to the United States.
SRA said in its Sugar Order number 5, released on Wednesday, the move is part of the country’s fulfillment of the US sugar export quota.
The last time the Philippines exported raw sugar to the US was in September 2024, when it shipped 25,300 metric tons to California, also in an effort to fulfill the country’s sugar export quota to the US at the time.
Prior to that shipment, the Philippines exported 112,008 metric tons in commercial weight of raw sugar to the US during cropyear 2020-2021.
The US Trade Representative sugar exports quota for the Philippines for fiscal year 2025, or from Oct 1, 2024 to Sept 30, 2025 stands at 145,235 MT.
In Sugar Order 5 on March 12, the agency said raw sugar exports allowed to be shipped to the US are those that are part of locally produced supply covered by a previous SRA order. The latter allowed traders to secure prioritized sugar import allocations in the future in exchange for voluntary purchase from local producers at a premium.
However, the SRA said that participants must remain licensed international sugar traders in good standing, to qualify for this voluntary raw sugar shipments to the US.
The agency said the program is voluntary as it will have lower returns for the participants apart from the additional cost “and uncertainty inherent to the exportation of sugar.”
The US sugar export quota is still deemed important as the Philippines is only among selected countries given annual allocations of sugar exports to the US market.
Based on DA’s monitoring of public markets in the National Capital Region, prevailing retail prices as of Tuesday ranged from P74 to P90 per kg for refined sugar, P68 to P85 per kg for washed sugar and P60 to P85 per kg for brown sugar.
SRA millsite monitoring also showed the composite price of raw sugar as of February 23 was at P2,828.72 per 50 kg bag, down by 3 percent from the previous week’s P2,917.11.
