Sugar production for the current crop year is likely to breach 2 million metric tons (MT) and exceed production from the previous crop year, the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) said on Monday.
Based on field reports, current sugar production for the crop year 2024 to 2025, has so far exceeded the initial projection of 1.782 million MT and the pre-final estimate of 1.840 million MT, SRA Administrator Pablo Luis Azcona said in the agency’s statement.
Once realized, the over 2-million MT harvest would also surpass the 1.92 million MT produced during the crop year 2023 to 2024.
Sugar crop year in the Philippines starts in September and ends in August of the following year.
Azcona called the field reports “very surprising,” considering the challenges the sugar industry faced at the beginning of this crop year.
Apart from intensive research and hard work, the better-than-expected sugar production numbers can also be attributed to President Marcos Jr.’s approval of the policy to move the start of the harvest from August to October 1.
“It was a combination of intensive research and the hard work that you’ve all done that turned this crop year into a positive year… We were very prudent in our projection because we just came out of a very long drought due to the El Niño (in 2024) and yet, our canes recovered nicely, not to mention the stable sugar prices we’ve had through most of this season,” Azcona added.
He also mentioned the massive production and distribution of high-yielding varieties as another factor in the positive output this year.
“Personally, I was not a believer of SRA varieties in the past, but without a doubt, we have produced very high quality cane varieties that increased our production output,” he said.
However, the SRA was mum on the country’s expected sugar production for the next crop year, the 2025 to 2026 season, especially with the effects of the red-striped soft scale insects’ (RSSI) infestation in the Negros Island.
Negros Island accounts for more than 60 percent of the country’s sugar produce while RSSI is a sugarcane pest that can reduce sugar content by almost 50 percent.
As of June 6, 2025, the SRA said that RSSI has affected the livelihood of 465 farmers in 841.7 hectares of sugarcane plantation in 21 cities and municipalities on the Negros Island.
The SRA has put in place protocols to quarantine sugarcane farms, transport produce, and disinfect farming tools and equipment, to contain the spread of the RSSI infestation. However, it did not provide information on Monday, about its proposal to get emergency permits for five pesticides which have shown potential to kill the RSSI.
Based on the DA’s monitoring of public markets in the National Capital Region, prevailing retail prices as of Friday, June 13, ranged from P74 to P90 per kilogram for refined sugar, P68 to P90 per kg for washed sugar, and P65 to P90 per kg for brown sugar.
The SRA millsite monitoring also showed the composite price of raw sugar as of May 25 was at P2,715.06 per 50-kg bag, down by 0.5 percent from the week-earlier P2,728.96.
