CEBU’s oldest and only sugar milling firm, Bogo-Medellin Milling Company Inc. (Bomedco) in Barangay Luy-a, Medellin, northern Cebu, clarified on Thursday, July 27, 2023, that it had originally planned to conduct milling operations for the crop year 2022-2023.
However, it made the decision to “suspend milling operations starting January 2023, not August 2022, solely due to the insufficient delivery of sugarcane,” it said, clarifying a statement made by Sugar Regulatory Administration Acting Administrator Pablo Luis S. Azcona to BusinessWorld that the company suspended operations in August 2022.
Azcona’s statement, though, about the sugarcane being transported to Negros Island for milling, was confirmed by Bomedco in a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) on Thursday.
“As a matter of fact, our sugarcanes are currently being prepared in time for the start of the milling season scheduled for September 2023. We are diligently working on ensuring the efficient processing of our sugarcanes in line with the upcoming milling season,” the company stated.
Bomedco, founded in 1928, explained that its decision to suspend milling operations was due to the sugar planters’ delivery failing to satisfy its rated capacity of 2,500 tons. The company typically begins its milling season between October to December of each crop year.
Before deciding to suspend its operations, Bomedco stated that it had “successfully conducted a trial run to ensure seamless milling operations.”
“It is crucial to clarify that while the milling operations have been temporarily suspended, the rest of the company’s farming and agricultural services are ongoing,” the company added without giving further details on these services.
Bomedco had previously disclosed to the PSE that it “has no milling operations for this Crop Year starting January 2023 until the present” because of the “insufficient supply of canes.”
“In effect, the company declared a temporary shutdown until further notice,” the disclosure added.
The company emphasized that it is “actively pursuing measures to address the insufficient delivery of canes and devising strategies to overcome this challenge.”
“We assure the public that this is a temporary concern that we intend to address in due time. While we are currently facing a unique situation, we want to emphasize that Bomedco remains fully operational in all other aspects of our business,” the company assured.
Medellin is considered the sugar bowl of Cebu due to the abundance of sugarcane plantation production in the municipality.
According to the Philippine Statistics Authority, from January to March 2023, sugarcane production in the country reached 8.68 million metric tons, indicating a decrease of 17 percent from the 10.46 million metric tons output in the same period of 2022.
In the same period, Central Visayas was the third major producer of sugarcane in the country, accounting for a 12.2 percent share in the total production.
Western Visayas remained the top producer with 4.40 million tons or 50.7 percent of the total production, followed by Northern Mindanao with 17.1 percent.
Centrifugal sugar from sugarcane accounted for 98.5 percent of the total, while the production of ethanol, panocha/muscovado, chewing gum and basi/vinegar derived from canes had an aggregate share of 1.5 percent.