No need to restore SRP for sugar - SRA

MANILA, Philippines -  The Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) does not see any need to restore a suggested retail price (SRP) for sugar at the current time.

In a press briefing, SRA administrator Gina Bautista-Martin said that there is no immediate need to recommend an SRP as the sugar milling season is underway.

In fact, she revealed, the milling season has been delayed due to the heavy rains.

As such, instead of ending by February, the sugar milling season is now expected to extend up to March this year.

Martin reported that as of Jan. 25, 2011, there are 28 sugar mills operating out of the 29 mills registered with the SRA for crop year 2010-2011.

A sugar crop year starts in September and ends in August of the next year.

With the ongoing sugar milling, Martin assured, raw sugar stocks in mill warehouses are building up.

As of Jan. 9, 2011, Martin said, total raw sugar supply was 831,459 metric tons, with total withdrawals of 374,176 MT.

The raw sugar supply figure, Martin explained, shows that sugar supply is more than double the quantity of total domestic demand.

“It is clear that current local supply is more than sufficient to meet domestic demand,” Martin said.

A monitoring of sugar prices in wet markets and supermarkets, Martin said, shows prices averaging around P65 per kilo in the wet market and around P68/k in the supermarkets.