The Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) will classify all sugar produced in the 2024-2025 crop year as “B” or domestic sugar to help secure local supply and stabilize prices for consumers.

SRA Administrator Pablo Luis Azcona said Thursday the classification will cover the entire milling season, which will start on 1 October or the nearest Monday. Since 1 October falls on a Wednesday, milling may open on 29 September.

The sugar crop year usually runs from September to August, with mills halting operations between May and June and resuming in September to October, while refineries begin about two weeks later.

As of 27 July, raw sugar output reached 2.084 million metric tons from almost 26 million metric tons of cane milled across 405,000 hectares, with 392,000 hectares planted for sugar and 13,000 for bioethanol.

To further drive industry growth, Azcona said the Department of Agriculture and SRA will seek P8 billion for soil rejuvenation and small-scale irrigation covering 160,000 hectares over three years, plus P1.2 billion for high-yielding variety plantlets. 

“Our productivity in the past three years was largely due to the distribution of high-yielding variety canes, and SRA intends to focus on this, along with other scientific approaches to farming that we have been learning from our foreign partners, towards our self-sustainability,” he said.

The industry expects a P1 billion SIDA fund next year, though stakeholders want to increase the annual allocation from P2 billion to P5 billion.

Azcona added that the Philippines is pursuing cooperation programs with Japan and Brazil and exploring more partnerships on varietal exchange and propagation.