THE Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) needs a P2-billion budget under the Sugarcane Industry Development Act (SIDA) to address damage from red-striped soft scale insects (RSSI) and El Niño.
Last week, SRA Administrator Pablo Azcona said the agency’s annual SIDA funding had been P1 billion, supplemented by P500 million in unutilized funds carried over from previous years.
The proposed P2-billion budget would cover additional measures against drought and pest infestations. Azcona said Senators Francis Pangilinan and Juan Miguel Zubiri supported the request and had encouraged the agency to ask for the higher allocation.
If approved, the SRA plans to allocate P1 billion to irrigation and RSSI control through extension services and block farming programs. Irrigation would receive 60 percent, while pest control would get 40 percent.
The RSSI allocation would fund drone spraying equipment, biocontrol fungi, and regional laboratories, Azcona said.
SIDA, enacted in 2015, aims to improve the sugarcane industry’s competitiveness and raise the income of farmers and farmworkers through higher productivity, product diversification, job creation and more efficient milling.
Meanwhile, the SRA is assessing output from the current milling season before deciding whether the Philippines can commit to raw sugar exports to the United States.
Azcona said he had asked the US Department of Agriculture to give the Philippines until mid- or late November to decide, allowing the agency to review the October production.
Only three mills in Negros were operating at the start of milling, but operations are now at full capacity, Azcona said. Based on the SRA’s production estimates, farmers and millers had agreed to reserve all raw sugar output for domestic use.
The agency’s Sugar Order No. 1 classifies all raw sugar production for crop year 2026–2027 as “B,” or domestic market sugar, to stabilize local supplies and address a projected production shortfall.
The order estimates raw sugar output at 1.662 million metric tons for the crop year, which runs Oct. 1, 2026 to Sept. 30, 2027.
It also allows mills to start operations as early as Sept. 28 to ensure a smooth transition into the new crop year.