BACOLOD CITY — Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) administrator Pablo Luis Azcona announced that the official start of the 2025-2026 milling season would be October 1 or the Monday closest to that date.
“October 1 being a Wednesday we may declare it open on September 29,” said Azcona at the 71st Philsutech (Philippine Sugar Technologists) convention held on the second week of August in Cebu City.
A successive re-adjustment follows a 3-year transition period to bring back the start of milling on the last quarter of each year after these were advanced earlier during the previous administration.
Azcona also bared that all sugar produced in the coming crop year will be classified as “B” or domestic sugar.
SRA has proposed an P8 billion budget for soil rejuvenation and small scale irrigation that would cover about 160,000 hectares in a 3-year period.
This, said Azcona is “crucial” funding along with the proposed P1.2 billion needed for the propagation of high yielding variety plantlets to cover some 20,000 hectares of sugarcane farms.
