Ben Madilynn
The milling for this crop year does not have a good start, Pablo Luis Azcona, Sugar Regulatory Administrator said Friday.
Azcona said based on the report from the sugar mills sugar content has low kg per ton cane or yield and that there are even “katis” or no sugar.
” It’s not a good start and the sugar yield is 15% low,” Azcona said.
For the first three weeks of production since the start of milling on September 15 there were only 112,908 bags or 5,600 tonnes of sugar produced which is 96% below last year’s output production which was 2,695,684.50 bags or 134,784 tonnes. The milling last year started on September 15.
First Farmers Sugar Central was the only sugar mill that started to operate from Sept. 15 to October 4 with B sugar price pegged at P2,791 per lkg bag.
The mill gate price of sugar is expected to increase in the coming months when most of the sugar farmers start their milling operations, Azcona added.
” We anticipated a low start because of El Niño,” Azcona pointed out.
” In the beginning, there were a lot of mills and sugar organizations who were claiming that they were ready to mill, however when milling started very little sugarcane was brought in the mills. So we’re hoping that this is just caused by El Niño that delayed the milling.
The farmers are not yet ready to mill because their sugarcane is still growing and they expect more yield if they delay a little more. I think the peak of milling will just be a little delayed,” Azcona added. (TDE)
