SRA orders public auction of old raw sugar stocks

MANILA, Philippines - The Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) has ordered the disposition through public auction of all raw sugar covered by outstanding quedans issued during crop year 2011 to 2012 and prior, to prevent deterioration of stocks and decongest mill warehouses.

Through Sugar Order No. 12 issued on July 22, SRA administrator Ma. Regina Martin said the raw sugar stocks must be disposed of on or before August 31.

 “The Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA), in the exercise of its regulatory functions and in the course of reviewing its policies concerning outstanding quedan-permits, has observed that majority of the mills have non-moving sugar quedans on their book inventory,” said Martin.

“To ensure that sugar stored at the mills’ warehouses are of good quality, all sugar mills are hereby allowed to conduct compulsory disposition through public bidding/auctions,” she added.

Mills that fail to comply with the sugar order would face penalties as determined by the SRA.

Sugar millers are required to submit to the SRA an updated list of old outstanding sugar quedans for the issuance of replacement quedans.

The current sugar milling season is drawing to a close next month with production already placed at 2.44 million metric tons (MT), a flat growth from the 2.45 million MT produced in the previous crop year.

This year’s output, however, was higher than the revised production estimate of 2.35 million MT for this year in consideration of the damage inflicted by Typhoon Yolanda in November 2013 on five percent of the country’s total sugar cane cultivation area of 420,000 hectares.

Production picked up during the summer as sugarcane is a resilient crop.

Two small mills, located in Ormoc and Negros are still operating and would close operations mid-August, contributing a small volume to the total sugar already produced.

There are still some 1,000 hectares of cane in Ormoc that have not yet been harvested due to difficulties encountered by farmers in harvesting.