The United States has allowed the Philippines to ship out an additional 18,824 tons of sugar on top of the 193,685 tons under a preferential trade scheme.

In a statement, the United States Trade Representative (USTR) said the additional quota was granted because of the “persistent lobbying efforts of the Philippine sugar industry and the Sugar Regulatory Administration [SRA].”

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

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

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

Aside from the Philippines, 20 other countries were given additional allocations by the US. The USTR said the additional allocations were based on the countries’ historical shipments to the US.

Meanwhile, the SRA noted that as of July 7, there were around 25,000 tons of “D” sugar ready for shipment to foreign markets other than the US. 

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

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

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