DAR: Bumper harvest for sugar

MANILA—It looks like it will be a sweet year for the sugar industry.

The Philippines will export sugar again as the country is enjoying a bumper harvest this year, Agriculture Secretary Proceso Alcala said.

The country’s sugarcane fields yielded a harvest of 2.39 million metric tons for the crop year of 2010-2011, a 21.3 percent improvement over last year’s volume, the DA said.

Because of the bumper harvest, which was a result of good weather in the canefields, the country is poised to export at least 300,000 metric tons of raw and refined sugar this year, Alcala said. He noted that the Philippines may cease to import sugar in the future.

“We have been making great strides in sugar production the past year. This may very well be the start of the country producing more than enough to meet its domestic requirements and quota obligations, but also to ensure that sugar farmers have a reasonable, sufficient, and ‘livable’ income,” Alcala said.

This is also a welcome development for Negros Occidental, which is considered the sugar capital of the country.

The agriculture department, he said, is eyeing to sell sugar in Southeast Asia. Recently, countries like Indonesia, China, South Korea and Japan said they would buy sugar from the Philippines. The Philippines also exports sugar to the United States under a preferential treatment scheme.  /inquirer