The Philippines lowered its estimate for 2011/12 raw sugar output by 7 percent to 2.24 million tonnes due to a decline in cane tonnage, the government said on Thursday. The Southeast Asian country, however, is keeping its target of exporting more than a fourth of its downscaled crop estimate.
"Our final sugar crop estimate for 2011/12 is 2.24 million tonnes, but there is no need to trim our exports," Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) chief Regina Bautista-Martin said. "Sugar planters are claiming that cane harvest per hectare is lower by 20 percent," she told Reuters via mobile text message, adding that harvest in some areas had been completed sooner than expected because of stunted canes.
Bautista-Martin said recent heavy rains and flooding triggered by typhoon Washi, which killed more than 1,000 people and damaged infrastructure, had "minimal" impact on sugar production in central and southern provinces. But above-normal rainfall is expected to prevail particularly in the southern parts of the country, including sugar-producing provinces, with the La Nina condition forecast to persist through February next year.
The country's raw sugar output in the first quarter of the current crop year rose 75 percent from a year earlier to 431,230 tonnes, the SRA said earlier this month. The SRA has allowed exports of up to 672,000 tonnes of raw sugar for the current crop year ending August 31, 2012, or 28 percent of the earlier production estimate of 2.4 million tonnes. Shipments between September 1 and November 28 totalled 225,904 tonnes, excluding 2,000 tonnes of refined sweetener.
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