Bumper sugar harvest seen

The sugar industry is enjoying a resurgence after suffering a long slump that led to its near collapse.

Data from the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) show that efforts to raise the productivity of the sugar industry through the use higher-yielding varieties, adoption of new technology and rehabilitation of mostly antiquated milling facilities resulted in a 32.6-percent growth in production over the last four years.

SRA Administrator James Ledesma said the production increase, also due to the 22-percent improvement in mill recovery, helped achieve for the country self-sufficiency in sugar this year after more than a decade of experiencing production shortfalls.

For cropyear 2002-2003 which ends this August, sugar production is seen to hit a high 2.13 million metric tons, more than enough to meet the domestic requirement of about 1.9 million metric tons and to supply the country’s sugar export quota to the United States.

Based on the SRA data, sugar production in Mindanao increased by almost 100 percent, which was attributed to a 52-percent increase in hectarage, a 9.59-percent increase in mill recovery and an 82-percent improvement in yield per hectare of major sugar mills in Bukidnon such as Crystal Sugar Co. the Bukidnon Sugar Milling Corp. (Busco), which refurbished their facilities.

In the island of Negros, the country’s sugar bowl, the 29-percent increase in sugar production over a four-year period (1999-2003) is considered quite substantial considering that area dedicated to sugarcane planting went down by 2.8 percent.

In Luzon, there was a significant increase of 16.57 percent in production largely due to higher sugar content of cane and better mill recovery. Area planted to sugarcane and cane tonnage also increased at 2.69 percent and 3.35 percent, respectively.