Poor local demand and oncoming milling surplus have forced sugar prices down in the Philippines into a producer crisis despite ebbing current yields.
So far, the PH has stayed the crisis by extending an import ban of the sweetener from September to December 2026.
But this has not prevented the Confederation of Sugar Producers Associations Inc. (CONFED) on January 8, 2026 from fronting farmer/miller distress.
According to the CONFED, a practical solution would be for the government to purchase raw sugar at a minimum 2,300 peso ($38.85) per 50 kg.
The corporation was fast to comment that the suggestion is not a subsidy request but a stabilization measure to revive declining refinery operations.
Speaking of which, the body cites that sugar refiners are working under capacity due to lowering yields, despite surplus reserves.
Double Crisis in Negros
Especially hard hit is the sugar capital of the country, Negros Occidental, where not only are mill-gate rates low but yields are waning.
Irrespective of yield decline, there is a domestic carryover sugar surplus that has barred imports to protect producer prices.
More so, sugar production will improve in the January-March milling peak period, which began in end November last year – potentially lowering prices further.
“Double whammy” is what cane farmers on Negros island are calling the duo sugar price and demand crisis.
Notably, millers’ prices plummeted by 14% year-on-year, to 2,174 pesos ($36.72)/50kg on December 21, 2025.
The National Federation of Sugarcane Planters estimates that sugarcane growers are currently losing 200-300 peso ($3.38-5.07) per bag of what millers pay them versus last season, per the Inquirer.
Regional sugar milling in Bukidnon province began end November 2025, with initial bidding down to 2,150 pesos ($36.31)/50 kg from 2024’s 2,400 peso ($40.54).
With the production peak about to climax in March, farmers are against any further sugar imports. Some quarters blame the current crisis on the 1 million tonnes of sweeteners that the Philippines imported last season, which apparently lowered producer prices. This in turn forms the topic of the below data section from a wholesale perspective.
Philippines Producer and Wholesale Sugar Prices Statistics
The sugar industry of the Philippines is sometimes dogged by various market forces that often affect producer rates. Hence, millers or producer prices are often higher than millers’ export prices. For example in 2020-21, export prices directly from millers were at 1,239.1 peso ($23.35)/50 kg while domestic mill-site prices averaged 1,569.4 ($27.57)/50 kg.
Wholesale prices of raw sugar in turn average more than both mill-site and export equivalents. They sold as follows between September 2023 and April 2024, per Gazer’s Digest:
| Month-and-Year | Wholesale Price [per 50 kg] |
| April 2024 | 3,045.33 peso ($51.44) |
| January 2024 | 2,949.95 peso ($49.82) |
| December 2023 | 3,122.13 peso ($52.73) |
| September 2023 | 3,512.47 ($59.33) |
Fig: wholesale sugar prices in metro Manila, PH, Sep 2023-Apr 2024
How much sugar does the PH produce annually?
The Philippines managed near-consistent sugar processing volumes of between 2 million and 2.125 million tonnes from 2020 to 2023, per the FAOSTAT, :
| Year | Production [tonnes] |
| 2023 | 2,000,000 |
| 2022 | 2,183,606 |
| 2021 | 2,199,526 |
| 2020 | 2,125,700 |