DA OKs export of 100,000 MT raw sugar to US

Upgrade to High-Speed Internet for only ₱1499/month!

Enjoy up to 100 Mbps fiber broadband, perfect for browsing, streaming, and gaming.

Visit Suniway.ph to learn

January 13, 2026 | 12:00am

To lift farmgate prices

MANILA, Philippines — Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. has approved the export of 100,000 metric tons (MT) of raw sugar to the US to lift falling farmgate prices by reducing domestic supplies.

In a statement, the Department of Agriculture (DA) said the proposal of the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) to ship out raw sugar to the US has been approved.

Tiu Laurel said the planned export would help soak up excess raw sugar supply, which he claimed was a result of better-than-expected production in the last crop year, to ease downward price pressure.

“We will export raw sugar under the US quota system as soon as possible to provide the industry immediate relief,” Tiu Laurel said yesterday.

Farmgate prices of raw sugar as of Dec. 21, 2025 fell by 14 percent to P2,174 per 50-kilo bag from P2,537 per 50-kilo bag in the same period in 2024, based on latest SRA data.

The country’s raw sugar stocks are up by three-fourths on an annual basis to 430,713 MT from 245,892 MT, SRA data showed.

SRA administrator and CEO Pablo Luis Azcona said the export approval is a “timely step” in balancing the country’s sugar supply and demand situation.

“Since the new administration entered, our raw sugar production has been increasing, and we have activated the US exports. It will be the third year now, and the volume exported is growing as well, from 33,000 MT to 66,00 MT and now 100,000 MT,” Azcona said.

“The last two years’ exports of raw sugar has helped increase our farmer prices, and this year, this is a much needed step that our farmers need. We cannot take the suggestion of just sitting and doing nothing,” Azcona added.

The SRA has been enticing sugar industry players, especially traders and buyers, to buy locally produced raw sugar at a higher price in exchange for a guaranteed export allocation in the future.

The SRA is banking again on its voluntary purchase program to prop up local raw sugar prices that have plunged by more than 10 percent on an annual basis.

The government has attributed the drop in raw sugar farmgate prices to higher supplies caused by better production but critics have lamented that importation has been the culprit behind the higher than usual sweetener stocks.

The SRA is expected to issue an order that will allow traders and buyers to purchase a total of 400,000 MT of raw sugar at a higher price in exchange of getting a piece of the prospective 100,0000 MT of raw sugar to be exported to the US.

Each participating entity that buys four kilos of raw sugar will be allowed to export a kilo of raw sugar to the US. The caveat of the system comes in the form of an eventual import allocation should the government opens an import program in the future.