No sugar MAV this year - SRA

The government did not allow the importation of sugar at a lower tariff rate in the current minimum access volume (MAV) year since the country has ample stocks to meet domestic consumption, the Sugar Regulatory Administration said.

- JASPER EMMANUEL ARCALAS

SRA administrator and CEO Pablo Luis Azcona said the Department of Agriculture (DA) decided not to open a sugar MAV program since domestic stocks are enough to meet the requirements of both households and industrial users.

The decision was made in August 2023 by then Senior Agriculture Undersecretary Domingo Panganiban, a few months before the DA opened its call for applications for the MAV year 2024 last November.

Any imports made under the MAV mechanism will have a lower tariff than imports that enter the country outside the MAV as part of the country's trade commitments.

In the case of sugar, imports within MAV have a 50 percent tariff while those outside MAV are levied with 65 percent tariff.