The Sugar Regulatory Administration has issued guidelines to ensure that the Philippines fulfill its additional US quota, the Department of Agriculture said in its report on Tuesday.

The United States Department of Agriculture had earlier increased the Philippine quota from the traditional 137,353 metric tons to 216,438 metric tons or an increase of almost to 80,000 metric tons.

The Philippines had committed to fill up the additional quota to maintain its status as a reliable sugar supplier to US market, a premium and a stable market for the Philippine sugar.

The guidelines provided in Circular Letter No. 24 of the Sugar Order No. 6 primarily focuses on how the 50,000 MT additional export to the US could be facilitated, the DA report said.

The SRA said it had observed that towards the end of February, there was slowing down in the movement of "A" or US export quedans for shipment and the US export program was being threatened.

A program was designed to address such concern and its key element was to connect additional US exports to the planned imports, the report from DA said.

In Feb. 23, 2006, the Office of the President issued Memorandum Order No. 206 which authorized a 50,000 metric tons counter trade sugar swap program on a 1:1 ratio, authorizing SRA to implement the order.

The duty free refined imports would be used as an incentive to the exporters for them to ship out more to the US. The SRA relied on the track record of each of the actual US exporters, a total of seven, proportionately based on each one's share in the 137,353 metric tons basic quota export as basis for the import allocation, the DA said.

The SRA said it believes the world pricing structure today allows this to happen without disrupting domestic price. The imports will arrive after June 1, 2006 when the bulk of the milling will have been finished, and if they arrive earlier, will be classified by the SRA as "C" or reserve sugar, it added.*

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