Sugar industry of the Philippines
Sugarcane, specifically Saccharum sinense, is one of the original major crops of the Austronesian peoples (which includes Filipinos), since at least 3500 BCE.
Saccharum officinarum was later acquired from early farming cultures in Papua New Guinea and gradually replaced S. sinense throughout its cultivated range in maritime Southeast Asia.
[10][11][9][12][13] Sugarcane was traditionally used in the pre-colonial Philippines for making various native jaggery products (collectively called panutsa, like pakombuk, sangkaka and bagkat bao) used in cooking.
[21] Consequently, some prominent Ilonggo sugarcane planters like the Ledesma, Lacson, Hilado, Cosculluela, Pérez, Alvarez, Sotamayor and Escanilla families moved to Negros in 1857 due to its promising development.
The raw sugar which the Visayas' main product was exported to the United States, England and Australia.
agricultural export of the Philippines between the late eighteenth century and the mid-1970s because of two main reasons: 1) foreign exchange earned and 2) it was the basis of wealth accumulation of some Filipino elite at that time.
[21] Roxas Holdings Incorporated on February 28, 2024, permanently closed its wholly owned subsidiary, the 97-year-old Central Azucarera Don Pedro in Nasugbu where Manny Pangilinan is vice-chairman.
[21] The transfer of Philippines as a colony from the Spanish to the Americans was not easy due to strong resistance from Filipino leader Emilio Aguinaldo.
The Americans, unlike their predecessors, provided partial liberty to the Filipinos by preparing the latter to achieve independence and run its own government through a Commonwealth form of state.
[21] The initial resistance turned into market cooperation that emanated from trust and good will of Filipino people towards the American colonizers and vice versa.
United States' colonization of the Philippines protected the country from vicissitudes of world sugar prices due to its free access to a protected and subsidized American market, which started in 1913, when the United States established free trade with its Philippine colony.
Twenty-one years later in 1934, the United States enacted a quota system on sugar that remained enforced until early 1970s.
Philippine quotas for the United States ranged between 25 and 30 percent, a rate that is higher than other sugar suppliers like the Dominican Republic, Mexico and Brazil.
The negative effect was greatly felt on the island of Negros, where the sugar industry employed 25 percent of local farm workers.
[21] In the 1970s, President Ferdinand Marcos and his economic advisers argued that pervasive market failures were the root cause of the decline of the sugar industry.
In May 1978, the Republic Planters Bank was established to provide adequate and timely financing to the sugar industry.
[21] After the 1986 Revolution, which ousted Marcos, President Corazon Aquino immediately appointed Fred J. Elizalde as officer-in-charge of the institutions that will regulate the sugar industry since the administration that time was technically in revolutionary form of government.
Sugar is primarily produced in Visayas (most especially in Negros Island Region), as well as in Central Luzon, and some parts of Mindanao.
[29] It is estimated that as of 2012, the industry provides direct employment to 700,000 sugarcane workers spread across 19 sugar producing provinces.
The Philippine government, through SRA, provides the extension efforts in partnerships with the Mill District Development Councils (MDDC).
PHILSURIN assists this initiative through the hiring of Mill District Coordinators and financial support to many programs of the MDDC.
[31] The sugar industry is in alternative energy sources which include biofuel through bioethanol production and co-generation activities.
[32] From crop years 2002–2003 to 2008–2009, the Philippines consistently met its domestic sugar needs and produced surplus for export.
