Pests, El Niño, rising costs threaten sugar production

MANILA, Philippines — Ongoing pest infestation, the El Niño phenomenon and rising input costs threaten to slash the country’s raw sugar production for this cropping season, according to a report. The US Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service (USDA-FAS) estimated raw sugar production at 1.7 million metric tons (MT) for marketing year 2026-2027, an 8.6 percent