PHL to advance sugar shipment to the US

The Philippine government has advanced by a month the shipment of raw sugar to the United States under by the Tariff Rate Quota scheme after Washington pressed for its earlier delivery. Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) manager for planning Rosemarie Gumera said the sugar shipments have been moved to Sept. 1 from Oct. 1 "due to the tightness of US raw sugar supply." The supply problem in the US stemmed from the hard freeze that hit Florida resulting in record losses for the commodity. Total sugar allocated to the Philippines under the quota scheme was 224,549 metric ton raw value (MTRV) as of July, after the US increased the additional quota twice by 19,648 MTRV in July and 60,000 MTRV in April. The Philippines usually receives a quota allocation of about 142,160 MTRV every crop year. The US consumes on average 11 million tons of sugar a year, and must import to meet demand. The Philippines remains one of the preferred countries with an annual sugar tariff rate quota to the US, which allows exporter to ship at relatively low tariffs. On the other hand, the SRA is preparing to ship 46,866 MT of sugar to Japan, which had initially placed an order of 37,000 MT. Indonesia, meanwhile, has increased its order from the Philippines to 14,522 MT while China and Korea have placed separate orders of 825 MT and 6,040 MT, respectively. The SRA sells excess production to the world market — outside the US quota scheme — under its sugar export program. For crop year 2011 to 2012, sugar output is expected to reach 2.4 million MT, up 1.8 percent from 2.357 million MT a year earlier, helped by favorable weather in recent months. The estimated output exceeds by some 300,000 MT the average 2.1 million MT needed by the domestic market, the SRA said. — JMT/VS, GMA News