CADP is RP's Top Sugar Refiner

October 22, 1999 PSE CIRCULAR FOR BROKERS NO. 2706-99 CADP is RP's TOP SUGAR REFINER Publicly listed Central Azucarera Don Pedro reported in a disclosure to the Securities & Exchange Commission that it produced 5.76 million bags of refined sugar during the recently concluded crop year 1998-99. Citing official statistics from the Sugar Regulatory Administration, the Batangas-based sugar company said that total Philippine refined sugar production increased 15 percent to 20.63 million bags from the 17.98 million bags in crop year 1997-98. It accounted for 28 percent of the total industry production, thus ranking first among the 16 sugar refiners during the year. The Company operates a 17,000 bags per day refinery which was completed after a three year expansion and modernization program at its integrated sugar factory in Nasugbu, Batangas. Company President Miguel A. Gaspar said that it was able to attain the top ranking in production because of the 78 percent improvement it registered from the 3.25 million bags sugar output it produced the previous crop year. "The strategic location and superior operating efficiencies of our refinery enabled us to obtain additional refining orders and significantly increase our overall production," he said. He added that the country maintained growing levels of sugar consumption, in spite of the economic weakness. He noted that the sugar market continues to be robust because of the growing population. CADP's Batangas plant is near the country's major market - Metro Manila and the urbanized areas of Laguna, Rizal, Cavite and Bulacan. The country produced 1.62 million metric tons of raw sugar in crop year 1998-99, 10 percent down from the 1.82 million tons the previous year. The decline was posted despite the increase in gross cane tonnage milled of 5 percent to 21.78 million tons from 20.65 million tons in crop year 1997-98. The drop in over-all raw sugar production resulted from the lower cane yields, principally due to the lower sugar content and quality of the cane harvest during the crop year due to La Nia. Cane yield went down to 1.50 bags per ton cane from 1.76 bags the previous crop year. CADP produced 120 thousand metric tons raw sugar from 1.34 million tons of cane ground at its mill in crop year 1998-99. This is down slightly from the 136 thousand metric tons processed from 1.32 million tons cane the year before. Gaspar said that the production outlook for crop year 1999-2000 is positive due to the predominantly favorable weather conditions for the current cane crop. llcd