The Sugar Regulatory Administration has issued an order to strictly allocate all sugar produced during the crop year 2022 to 2023 for domestic consumption to reduce import dependence on the commodity. In its Sugar Order 1 series of 2022 to 2023, the SRA said that 100 percent of raw sugar production for the current crop year should be classified as "B" or the domestic sugar market only.

A sugar crop year starts on 1 September and ends on 31 August of the following year, however, the sugar mills and refineries generally stop operations around May to June.

On the other hand, the mills start operations for the next season around September to October while the refineries start around two weeks after the mills. The SRA order was signed by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who also chairs the SRA Board. Agriculture Undersecretary Domingo Panganiban, Acting SRA Administrator David John Thaddeus Alba, and SRA acting board members Ma. Mitiz Mangwag as millers' representative and Pablo Luis Azcona as planters' representative also signed the order.

Output to hit 1.87-M MT

Based on the latest projection of the SRA, the total raw sugar production for the crop year 2022 to 2023 is estimated to reach 1.87 million metric tons, while the total domestic raw sugar withdrawal during the year is pegged at 2.03 million MT. Historically, the country must have carryover stocks of 250,000 MT of raw sugar and around 200,000 MT to 250,000 MT of refined sugar at the end of any crop year.