PH sets import ban on molasses until year-end

Metro Manila, Philippines - The country will not import molasses for the rest of the year because of oversupply and low millsite prices, according to a regulatory issuance.

The Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) released Molasses Order 1 dated Sept. 30 to address what it called “grave concerns” of farmers, planters, sugar mills, and other stakeholders on the stock balance and significant decline in millsite costs.

“We also need to see why the local molasses purchased from the farmers still remain unwithdrawn and unused. Hence, there is no need to import,” SRA Administrator Pablo Luis Azcona said on Thursday, Oct. 2.

As of Aug. 31, the molasses millsite stock balance was 303,961 metric tons (MT) brought about by a 20 percent increase in domestic production to around 1.176 million MT.

The SRA said around 853,000 MT of molasses entered the country for crop year 2024-2025 — 28 percent higher than the average annual importation in the last three crop years.

As of Aug. 24, the millsite price was P12,000 per MT, which was 30 percent lower than the previous crop year.

The SRA said it was also concerned about the “discrepancy” between the volume of molasses used as feedstock by bio-ethanol producers and the amount of alcohol production.

“I think it is imperative that we know where these ethanol and alcohol producers are sourcing their molasses from,” Azcona said.

“For the ethanol producers, we hope that their feedstock is really local as the biofuel law states, and for the alcohol producers, that they consume the local produce first, which is actually of higher quality, prior to resorting to lower quality imported molasses,” he said.

Projected drop in sugar production

Meanwhile, the SRA announced Oct. 5 as the beginning of milling for crop year 2025-2026.

The regulator projected total raw sugar production at 1.920 million MT, around 8 percent lower than the 2024-2025 production of 2.08 MT.

The forecast has a “possibility of decrease” due to the red-striped soft-scale insect (RSSI) infestation in Negros Occidental sugar farms and excessive rainfall in the island, the SRA said.

The RSSI infestation in Negros Occidental, a major sugar producer, was first reported in May. The pest can reduce sugar content by almost half.

The SRA restricted the transport of sugarcane plants from quarantined areas.

It said all sugar production for crop year 2025-2026 is for local consumption.