BACOLOD CITY, 16 AUGUST 2025 — the sugar industry is expected to continue with its growth trend, according to administrator Pablo Luis Azcona of the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) in his speech Wednesday, August 13 at the 71st Philsutech national convention in Cebu City.
At the same time, Azcona called on sugar farmers to remain vigilant and work alongside SRA in preventing the spread of the Red-striped Soft Scale Insect (RSSI) infestation that has spread to over 3,200 hectares in Negros and Panay islands.
“These are validated field inspection but the figures could be much higher and its effects on our sugar canes are not yet known,” Azcona said, adding that they would soon start testing on the sugar content of recovered canes. A study in Egypt has shown as much as a 50% drop in sugar content from RSSI infected canes.
In his report Azcona bared that as of July 27, raw sugar production totalled 2.084 MMT (million metric tons) from about 26 MMT canes milled out of 405,000 hectares harvested (of which 392,000 hectares were planted for sugar production and 13,000 hectares for bioethanol).
Azcona also noted the remarkable sugarcane production growth among Mindanao farmers particularly the newly-formed sugar federation led by its president, former Rep. Manuel Zubiri.
