2016 a challenging year for sugar industry – SRA

MANILA, Philippines – The year 2016 is seen to pose bigger challenges to the sugarcane industry in the Philippines due to dwindling farm areas and the impending El Niño phenomenon.

The Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) said it is important to produce more sugar at a lower cost following the continuous severe weather conditions brought about by El Niño.

“Climate conditions and weather patterns are the major factors which will determine the outcome of sugarcane yields in 2016,” SRA administrator Regina Martin said.

However, Martin said the industry is ready to face the challenges with the Sugarcane Industry Development Act (SIDA) which lays down the conditions for the maximization of the country’s sugarcane resources and provide support to small farmers.

Next year, SRA will commence full implementation of the SIDA which took effect last April, and will focus on research and development and strengthening of mill districts.

“If climate and weather patterns are favorable for sugarcane growth and sucrose formation – then, we see a better harvest of sugarcane which can cater to the production of sugar enough for the needs of our sugar markets like the domestic requirement, the US quota and the world market,” Martin said.

SRA also plans to intensify the Block Farm Program to increase production and improve farm efficiency and closely monitor production to ensure stable and sufficient supply of sugar.

“Our bottoms up budget approach supports the inclusive growth of the total development of the entire sugarcane industry,” she added.

On the other hand, SRA said that with good sugarcane yields, the crop could also supply the bio-ethanol feed stock needs of cane-based bio-ethanol plants like San Carlos Bioenergy and Green Future Innovations.

“With more sugar, comes more molasses to supply the molasses-based bio-ethanol plants and hopefully, the price of molasses will be stabilized to competitive levels,” Martin said.

SRA forecasts two additional molasses-based bio-ethanol plants Absolut Distillery and Emperador Distillery to operate in the first quarter of 2016, while cane-based plant, Cavite Biofuels Producer with 40 million-liter capacity, is expected to operate by the last quarter of next year.

Thus, the industry will have an additional bio-ethanol capacity of around 100 million liters in 2016 bringing the total bio-ethanol production capacity of 11 facilities to 322 million liters which is around 80 percent of the E10 mandatory requirement.