BACOLOD CITY – The dry spell that hit the country has inflicted severe damage to the sugar industry in Negros Occidental, the country's major producer of sugar.

The Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) has estimated the damage at P200,178,856 in Negros Occidental.

The province supplies 60 to 65 percent of the domestic sugar consumption.

SRA Administrator Pablo Luis Azcona reported that the drought caused a total of P215,700,114 in damage to sugar and molasses in the entire Western Visayas.

Damage in Capiz was reported at P13,747,242 and Iloilo at P1,774,015 on April 15, but the SRA said the figures are expected to increase as the end of the El Niño phenomenon is nowhere near.

The SRA also reported that 3,283 sugar farmers in the region have been affected by the drought, including 2,392 from Negros Occidental.

The report also said the dry spell has affected 5,753 hectares of sugar land in Western Visayas, including 4,705 hectares in Negros Occidental.

Azcona said the SRA's projected sugar production for the crop year 2023-2024 is 1.85 million metric tons (MT), but as of April 28 it has already hit 1.9 million MT as sugar production in Mindanao has made up for the losses in Negros Occidental.

There was an increase of 3,000 hectares of sugar land, which is the biggest contributor to the production increase for the crop year 2023-2024, he said.

Azcona said the bulk of the drought damage will be seen in the crop year 2024-2025 production report.

"The significant effect of El Niño right now is on what we will harvest next year, which we are supposed to have been planting since October 2023 until now," he said.

He also said that the problem right now is that those who don't have irrigation and don't have a source of water "have really had a big impact on their sugarcane plantations."

Negros Occidental is expecting a 30-percent drop in its standing crop output amid the extreme weather pattern.

Azcona said that his agency is currently conducting a survey to validate the reports from the field.

"If the El Niño continues to affect the local sugarcane industry, farmgate prices will have a slight increase," he said.

"But so far, the farmgate price went from P2,550 to P2,800 and the retail price went down and is stable for almost the whole year," Azcona said.