Sugar production up, but wholesale, retail prices also up

The country’s sugar production continued to expand after registering a strong growth last month, the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) said.

Data from the SRA showed raw sugar production climbed by 10.2 percent to 789,628 MT as of Jan. 16 from the 716,485 MT recorded in the previous week.

This was also 3.2-percent higher than the 765,021 MT in the same period a year ago.

Raw sugar output by 50-kilogram bags (LKg) increased by 3.21 percent to 15.8 million from 15.3 million year-over-year.

With that, the Philippines’ raw sugar supply was slightly up to 1.04 million MT from 1.02 million last year. Demand for raw sugar grew by 14.2 percent to 659,568 MT from 577,687 MT.

The country also produced 261,202.8 MT of refined sugar, almost 50-percent higher than last year’s 178,358 MT.

Refined sugar supply declined by 11.3 percent to 493,358.6 MT from 556,228.3 MT. Yet demand for raw sugar inched up by 4.2 percent to 365,395.45 MT from 350,528.25 MT.

SRA data also showed the prevailing wholesale price of raw sugar rose to P1,950 per LKg from P1,700 per LKg year-on-year. As for refined sugar, price increased to P2,700 per LKg from P2,150 per LKg.

The prevailing retail price of raw sugar was unchanged at P45 a kilo but the average price of refined sugar went up to P54.50 a kilo from P50 a kilo.

Last week, former SRA board member Emilio Bernardino Yulo reiterated calls to temper steep increases in fertilizer prices which he said, if left unabated, would severely impact the local sugar industry.

Data from the Fertilizer and Pesticide Authority showed the retail price of prilled urea averaged P2,517.74 per 50-kilo bag based on prices from Jan. 24 to 28. This was significantly higher than the P1,046.24 per 50-kilo bag around the same period last year. Urea is the fertilizer grade most heavily used by farmers.

Yulo said the price of petroleum products likewise nearly doubled, with diesel prices breaching the P50 per liter mark.

“We have been feeling the effects [of the price increases of the farm inputs] since the last planting season and in fact, several months ago, we called for national intervention, particularly from the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), yet there has been no concrete action,” he said.

And with Typhoon “Odette” affecting most of southern Negros, “our planters in the south may not be able to survive this crisis if DTI will not step in and ensure that fertilizers’ cost are kept at bay,” he added. INQ