Importers given until end of October to bring in rest of 200K MT of sugar

The Sugar Regulatory Administration Board has given importers until the end of the month to bring in the rest of the 200,000 metric tons (MT) of imported sugar allowed by the previous government.
 
The SRA Board issued on October 19 Sugar Order No. 3, series of 2022-2023, which amended Sugar Order No. 3, series of 2021-2022, issued by the Duterte administration.
 
In February, the SRA allowed the importation of 200,000 MT of sugar to augment the projected supply shortfall for this year.
 
The previous directive ended on August 31, 2022.

In its latest order, the SRA Board—chaired by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. who is also the concurrent Secretary of Agriculture—extended the deadline for SRA Clearance for Release of Imported Sugar up to September 30, 2022 and the arrival date of any imported sugar for the program up to October 31, 2022.
 
The SRA Board said it received “requests to change the arrival date of any imported sugar for the above-said importation program due to vessel delays and lack of availability of container vans being experienced not just regionally but also globally.”
 
The agency added that there were also requests from participating industrial users and the international sugar trade under the SO No. 3, series of 2021-2022, for the transfer of their allocated refined sugar to other allocates under the program.
 
“The reason for the above requests for the transfer of allocation is that the imported sugar of some participating industrial users (proposed transferor) [has] already arrived, though the supply will be needed for later months, while there are industrial users (proposed transferee) who have already used up their allocation and are still in urgent need [of augmenting] their supply,” the SRA Board said.
 
Likewise, it said that, as of August 31, 2022, there were still 9.194.10 MT of refined import allocation with no SRA Clearance application and a volume of 12,913 MT under the previous sugar directive that had not yet been reclassified from "C" to "B."
 
The SRA classifies and allocates sugar as “A” for US quota, “B” for domestic consumption, “C” for reserve, and “D” for the world market.  — VBL, GMA News