The Philippines, which shipped sugar to Asian countries this year for the first time in a decade, may resume exports to the region from September, officials said on Tuesday.
Prospects for another bumper sugar crop this year would enable the country to sell to other Asian countries on top of its annual export quota to the United States, they said.
"We will definitely be exporting (to Asia) again in the next crop year," James Leeds, administrator of the Sugar Regulatory Administration, told Reuters.
Archie Amada, executive director of a private foundation that promotes Philippine sugar, said the country may start shipping the commodity to other Asian countries between September and December.
"Six to 12 percent of the projected output of at least 2.3 million tonnes in 2004/2005 crop year will be shipped, probably to the same markets in Asia," he said. The Philippines exported about 60,000 tonnes of raw sugar to China, South Korea and Japan this year.
Amada said he expected the Philippines to receive the same US sugar quota of 137,300 tonnes for the 2004/2005-crop year, which starts in September. A programme that sets prices for developing countries above the world market price determines exports to the United States.
The United States has reduced its sugar import quota for the Philippines, a former US colony, from nearly one million tonnes in the 1970s. "We still have to assess the standing crop, but initially I am looking at a production of 2.3 million tonnes in 2004/2005, or the same as the current crop year's estimate," Leeds said.
He attributed this year's large output to relatively good weather and the use of higher yielding cane varieties. The country's projected 2003/2004-sugar output would be the highest production since the 2.34 million tonnes in 1983/1984.
The world's third- or fourth-largest exporter of sugar in the mid-1970s, the Philippines became a net importer in 1993 because of a drop in productivity and the area planted with sugar. It became self-sufficient again last year.
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