The Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) said on Monday that the onslaught of El Niño hit not only the sugarcane harvested this year, but also those for next year’s production.

In a radio interview, SRA administrator Pablo Luis Azconia said that El Niño has affected the sugarcane crops for this year towards its tail end.

“The significant effect of El Niño right now is on what we will harvest next year, which we are supposed to have been planting since October 2023 until now,” he said in Filipino.

“That’s our problem because those who don’t have irrigation and don’t have a source of water have had a big impact on their sugarcane plantations,” Azconia added.

The province of Negros Occidental, which supplies 60 to 65 percent of domestic sugar consumption, expects a 30 percent drop in its standing crop output amid the prevailing drought.

According to Azconia, “it is difficult to give figures that have not been thoroughly surveyed, so we are surveying.” He said that if reports of the yield decline are true, the sugar cane supply would possibly decrease.

“Maybe during the harvest season, the sugar cane supply might be a little low, but of course, the farmers will not leave their land without crops,” he said. “Our farmers will plant; the only problem is that it is delayed.”

According to the SRA official, the farmgate prices of sugarcane are currently low.

“We have created a program for our farmers that increased our price to P2,800 per bag of raw sugar. The program is done, and the milling is about to end,” he said, adding that the average farmgate price of a bag of raw sugar is P2,550.

He noted that if El Niño affects the local sugarcane industry, farmgate prices will have a slight increase.

Data from the Department of Agriculture’s regular price monitoring shows that refined sugar is priced between P70 and P100 per kilo, washed sugar is priced between P64 and P90, and brown sugar is priced between P63 and P90.

Last week, the agency reported that the value of damage to the country’s agriculture due to the onslaught of El Niño has already climbed to P5.9 billion, with rice crops incurring the biggest production damage amounting to P3.1 billion, followed by corn with an estimated value loss of P1.76 billion.