The official start of the milling season for crop year 2025-2026 is on Oct. 1, or the Monday closest to the date, as part of the three-year transition period to return the schedule to last quarter of the year, the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) announced Thursday.
“However, Oct. 1 being a Wednesday, we may declare it open on Sept. 29,” SRA Administrator Pablo Luis Azcona said in a statement.
SRA data showed that as of July 27, total raw sugar production has reached 2.084 million metric tons (MT) with almost 26 million MT of canes milled.
These were derived from a total of 405,000 hectares of sugarcane farms, of which 392,000 hectares were planted for sugar while 13,000 hectares are for bioethanol.
During the 71st Philippine Sugar Technologists Association Convention in Cebu City on Wednesday, Azcona cited Mindanao’s sugar cane farmers as this year’s heroes of the sugar industry.
He attributed the biggest production growth to members of the newly-formed sugar federation led by former congressman Manuel Zubiri.
He noted that productivity in the past three years has been “largely due to the distribution of high-yielding variety canes.”
“The SRA intends to focus on this along with other scientific approaches to farming that we have been learning from our foreign partners towards our self-sustainability,” he said.
Azcona said that together with Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr., he will present the SRA’s proposed request for an PHP8-billion budget for soil rejuvenation and small-scale irrigation to cover about 160,000 hectares of sugarcane farms in a three-year period.
“This is crucial along with our other proposal, including PHP1.2-billion for 20,000 hectares dedicated to propagation of high-yielding variety plantlets,” he added.
Azcona said that while he is hopeful the industry will continue its growth trend, he called on sugar farmers to remain vigilant and work alongside the SRA in preventing the spread of the red-striped soft scale insect (RSSI) infestation reported in 3,200 hectares in Negros and Panay.
“These are validated by field inspection, but the figures could be much higher and its effects on our sugarcanes are not yet known. We will soon start testing on the sugar content of recovered canes,” he said. (PNA)
