JAPAN and Indonesia have expressed interest to buy a combined 45,500 metric tons (MT) of surplus sugar from the Philippines, the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) said.

“Japan ordered 37,000 MT and Indonesia placed an order of 8,500 MT,” said Rosemarie S. Gumera, SRA manager for policy and planning, in a text message.

Gumera also said Korea and China have also inquired from the Philippines, but they have not yet placed their orders.

Earlier, the Philippine government announced that it is planning to sell at least 100,000 MT of sugar to the world market to stabilize the supply and price of domestic sugar.

As of July 7, the SRA said there are around 25,000 MT of “D” sugar or sugar for the world market that are ready for shipment to foreign markets other than the US.

The government explained that the inventory of “B” sugar or sugar for domestic consumption is building up due to “sluggish withdrawals.”

For the current crop year ending Aug. 31, the SRA noted that the local production of raw sugar reached around 2.36 million metric tons (MMT) against the domestic withdrawals of around 1.46 MMT as of June 26.

Sugar millers disclosed that local exporters and traders are currently competing with Thailand which produced almost 10 MMT of sugar. Thailand’s domestic requirement is pegged at 2.5 MMT.

Excess sugar is also destined to the US after Washington recently allowed the Philippines to ship out an additional 18,824 MT of sugar on top of the 193,685 MT under a preferential trade scheme dubbed as tariff rate quota.

The SRA said the Philippines is prepared to meet the US requirements for sugar and that there is available supply to meet the additional quota.

“A total of 140,850 MT was shipped out to the US and 52,835 MT are ready for loading to fully comply with the regular US quota of 136,200 MT and the first additional quota of 57,485 MT,” SRA Administrator Ma. Regina Bautista-Martin said in a previous statement.

Washington allows the Philippines and its other trading partners to ship sugar to the US under the tariff rate quota (TRQ) scheme.

The US trade representative noted that TRQs allow countries to export specified quantities of a product to the US at a relatively low tariff.

Sugar shipped out to the US by Philippine exporters are classified as “A.”