The sugar industry is gearing up for a major expansion as thousands of hectares of arable lands, mostly in Mindanao, are being tapped as future source of one of the country's major exports, a government press release said.

The Philippine sugar industry is too important to ignore and neglect, said Emil Q. Javier, president of the Natonal Academy of Science and Technology, who talked at the Roundtable Discussion of the Sugar Industry Cluster last Thursday in Pasay City.

Javier cited Lanao del Norte, South Cotabato, Saranggani, Agusan del Norte and Sur, Maguindanao, Central Palawan, Cagayan and Isabela and Sultan Kudarat and South Cotabato as the areas being eyed by the government as future sugar plantations, the Philippine News Agency said.

He said the move is part of the Philippine Agriculture 2020 of the sugar industry cluster, a strategic plan to sustain productive, profitable, competitive sugar and bioethanol industries especially in the countryside.

Sugarcane production will continue in traditional sugar-producing areas such as Negros Occidental as we tap new areas to produce ethanol where distilleries will also be established, Javier said.

The PA 2020 also aims to co-generate energy from bagasse, the biomass remaining after sugarcane stalks are crushed, to contribute to energy security. Bagasse has a potential of co-generating as much as 2,584 GWh of electricity per year, Javier said.

He added the plan also proposes P800 million investment in research and development to enhance sugar production.

The sugar industry, which generates $75 million in sugar exports, is pegged at P58 billion, and employs around 525,000 workers in the countryside. Negros is the top producer of sugar in the country, with 6.35 tons per hectare output in 2006, figures cited by the PNA said.*

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