SRA now accepting applications for add'l US sugar export allocation

MANILA, Philippines - The Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) has opened the application for allocation of sugar shipments to the US to fulfill the additional sugar quota received from that country.

In Sugar Order No. 10 dated June 4, the SRA said that it has set the deadline for submission of application for allocation and verification to ship “A” sugar or sugar for the US to meet the additional quota on June 8.

“The additional US sugar quota allocation for this quota year 2011-2012 shall be allocated among sugar exporters on a ‘first come-first served basis’, based on the date and order of verification,” the SRA said.

In April, the Philippines was given an additional sugar allocation of 72,374 metric tons (MT) in commercial value or 75,540 MT in raw value by the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR).

The allocation given that month is on top of the 138,827 MT (commercial weight) of country-specific in-quota sugar allocated to the Philippines by the USTR for fiscal year 2012 which was announced last year.

The SRA said that after the deadline of submission to apply for allocation to ship sugar to the US, it shall determine whether the volume covered by the applications is sufficient to fill-up the additional sugar quota from that country.

In the event the volume covered by the applications is not enough, the SRA shall notify the sugar farmers and mill associations of the deficiency and shall allow the advance-swapping of “D” sugar or sugar produced for the world market to “A” sugar or sugar for the US.

The volume of the advanced swapped “D” to “A” sugar, it said, would be awarded through bidding which shall be held no later than June 15 of this year.

The volume of the swapped “D” sugar to fulfill the additional US sugar quota would have to be replenished by August 31 of next year.

Data from the SRA showed that as of May 27, the country’s sugar production has reached 2.211 million MT, 2.97 percent lower than the production as May 29 last year.

SRA administrator Regina Bautista-Martin said in a text message yesterday the lower output was due to unfavorable weather conditions.

She said though that the SRA is still optimistic the sugar output estimate for the crop year would be attained.

“Crop year ends in August so we may reach the estimate,” she said.

The sugar output as of May 27 is already 98 percent of the SRA’s 2.24 million MT sugar output estimate for the current crop year.

The SRA earlier had a higher estimate of 2.4 million MT for production of sugar for the current crop year.

The sugar crop estimate was cut to 2.24 million MT however due to continuous rains in Visayas and Mindanao late last year.

The sugar crop year is from September until August.