Philippine sugar output may exceed target

THE CENTRAL DE AZUCARERA DE TARLAC sugar mill at Hacienda Luisita in Tarlac City. The Philippines’ sugar production is set to exceed expectations as total output has already hit 50 percent of the full-year target, the Sugar Regulatory Administration said Monday, Jan. 28, 2013. EV ESPIRITU/INQUIRER NORTHERN LUZON

MANILA, Philippines—The country’s sugar production is set to exceed expectations as total output has already hit 50 percent of the full-year target, the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) said Monday.

In an interview, SRA head Ma. Regina Bautista-Martin said favorable weather condition and the effects of the El Niño phenomenon in the last quarter of 2012 helped in boosting production of most sugar plantations.

As of Jan. 28, sugar production has already reached 1.093 million metric tons (MT), almost half of the 2.356 million MT target for crop year 2012-2013.

According to the SRA, the weekly production rate of sugar averaged at 67,548 MT with an average yield rate of 40 to 50 tons a hectare.

Total output jumped by 23.83 percent from the 882,956 MT recorded in the same period last year.

“We are more than a month ahead of schedule. We are expecting the sugar milling season to end before July this year,” Martin said. “This is good for our sugar planters. The earlier they end the milling season, the more the production costs.”