Victorias City, Negros Occidental”•Listed sugar miller Victorias Milling Company Inc. expects a lower income in the crop year 2016 to 2017 amid the drop in sugar harvests and prices.
“Our original outlook was about P1 billion, but I think we’ll go somewhere around P700 million,” said VMC chief financial officer Teresita Ilagan.
“We don’t expect so much growth as our production level is also down from what we originally projected,” said Ilagan.
VMC posted a net income of P798 million from 3.14 million tons of cane milled in the crop year 2015 to 2016.
Raw sugar production reached 6.21 million 50-kilogram bags while produced refined sugar amounted to 5.21 million bags.
VMC president Eduardo Concepcion said for the current crop year, raw sugar production was expected to decline to 5.7 million bags while refined sugar production was expected to drop to 4.2 million to 4.5 million bags.
“Overall picture now is that the country’s total sugar production will just be the same as last year. As far as Victorias is concerned, we expect a drop in production,” Concepcion said.
Concepcion said sugar prices also went down from its last crop year’s level.
“As I mentioned earlier, prices have softened this year compared to last year. Last year prices was good but this year it went down but is still on a profitable level,” said Concepcion.
Concepcion said traditionally, sugar prices were going down during the peak season of milling.
“When we started milling, the prices are high. Normally, November to February is the peak season of milling. Practically everyone is milling so prices went down,” he said.
Concepcion said there was a time when sugar prices reached P1,800 per bag.
“Last week, the price of domestic sugar was at P1,555 per bag. As of now, we can still make money out of that. Between P1,500 and P1,600, that should still be profitable,” Concepcion said.
Concepcion said the company would have around P300 million in capital expenditure this year. The amount will be used to increase factory efficiency and to put in new technologies, he said.