The 25 Sugar Mills of the Philippines: A Complete Directory (2025–2026)

There are 25 operating sugar mills in the Philippines. Every sugarcane farmer in the country delivers to one of them. That relationship, from farmer to mill, is where the money either comes out or gets squeezed, and most farmers know very little about the mill beyond the gate they back their truck into.

This is a directory of all 25. For each one: where it is, who owns it, how big it is, and how many farmers it serves where that number is publicly available. Mills are grouped by region, since that is how the milling districts work. Your mill is almost always the one nearest your farm.

National figures at a glance: the 25 mills collectively process roughly 97,000 tonnes of cane per day. Eleven of the 25 have attached refineries. About 61 percent of production comes from Negros Occidental, 15 percent from Mindanao, 8 percent from Panay, and 5 percent from Batangas.

Data draws from the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) directory of sugar mills, the Philippine Sugar Millers Association (PSMA), company websites, and Philippine Stock Exchange filings where applicable.

Negros Occidental: 9 Mills

Negros Occidental produces roughly 61 percent of Philippine sugar. Nine mills handle that load. The province is the centre of gravity for the whole industry.

1. Victorias Milling Company (VMC)

VMC is the largest single sugar operation in the country and one of the largest in Asia. Founded in 1919, it operates a 180-kilometre internal railway system and a fully integrated raw and refined sugar operation. It has been publicly traded since 1993.

2. SONEDCO (South Negros Development Corporation) — URC Sugar

URC acquired SONEDCO from the Montelibano family in 1989. The 2019 expansion added a second 6,000 TCD mill. The mill also runs a bagasse cogeneration plant. SONEDCO produces refined sugar for URC's own food brands: Great Taste, C2, and its biscuit and candy lines.

3. URC La Carlota

URC's acquisition of La Carlota from Roxas Holdings consolidated the Gokongwei group's position across multiple Negros milling districts. Together, URC's Philippine mills now operate at a combined capacity of roughly 40,000 TCD, or about 40 percent of national capacity.

4. Lopez Sugar Corporation (LSC)

As of 2026, ownership within the Lopez family has been the subject of an ongoing dispute, and who holds operational authority at the mill level is not settled in public sources. The planters' association, CLOPA, is the more stable point of contact for farmers in this district.

5. First Farmers Holding Corporation (FFHC)

In 1958, the planters of the Talisay-Silay district voted 98.6% in favour to leave the mill they had been using and build their own. By 1965, they were milling their first cane. FFHC was also the first sugar mill in the Philippines to earn ISO 14001 environmental certification, in 2003, and it generates electricity from its bagasse cogeneration plant, supplying power to cooperatives through a NEA franchise.

6. Binalbagan Isabela Sugar Company (BISCOM)

BISCOM is under the same Chan family group that owns Central Azucarera de Bais (Negros Oriental) and Central Azucarera de San Antonio (Iloilo). A new sugar refinery plant was under construction as of 2024.

7. Hawaiian-Philippine Company (HPCO)

Established in 1918, HPCO is one of the oldest continuously operating mills in Negros Occidental. It also produces muscovado sugar through traditional open-pan methods, the only commercially meaningful muscovado output from a Negros Occidental mill.

8. Sagay Central, Inc.

Sagay Central produces raw sugar, washed sugar, muscovado, and specialty low-glycemic index sugar varieties. In 2013, the mill signed a contract with VIASPACE to cultivate Giant King Grass as a biomass energy source, one of the few documented technology partnership experiments by any independent Philippine mill.

9. OPTION-MPC (Organic Producers in the Island of Negros Multi-Purpose Cooperative)

OPTION-MPC is the smallest mill in the Philippines by capacity and the only one focused on certified organic production. It operates in partnership with the Nisard Foundation (Negros Island Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development). Because the cooperative's members are the growers and the mill, the farmers vote on what happens to their own crop.

Negros Oriental: 4 Mills

Negros Oriental is a smaller producer than its neighbour on the other side of the central mountain range, but it has four mills serving distinct milling districts. The 2026 RSSI pest outbreak has placed particular pressure on farms across the province.

10. Central Azucarera de Bais, Inc. (CAB)

CAB was established in 1918 by the Tabacalera group from Spain and was acquired by the Chan family in 1979. It is the oldest continuously operating mill in Negros Oriental. In 2021, the Chan family filed for a PSE IPO valued at P558 million, which did not complete. CAB shares ownership with BISCOM (Negros Occidental) and CASA (Iloilo), though the three mills operate independently.

11. URSUMCO (Upper Roxas Sugar Milling Company) — URC Sugar

URSUMCO is URC's mill in Negros Oriental, serving the milling district in the northern and central portions of the province.

12. HDJ Bayawan Agri-Venture Corporation

In March 2023, law enforcement raided the HDJ compound in Bayawan City and the related Tolong Sugar Milling Corp in Sta. Catalina, seizing cash and firearms in connection with ongoing criminal proceedings against the Teves family. Both mills remain legally encumbered as of 2026. Farmers in this district should verify current milling arrangements directly with the SRA.

13. Tolong Sugar Milling Corp (Sta. Catalina Tolong Milling Corp.)

See HDJ Bayawan note above. Both mills are under the same legal cloud. The municipality of Sta. Catalina was formerly named Tolong, which is why this mill carries both names in official SRA records.

Panay / Western Visayas: 3 Mills

14. URC Passi

URC's Panay mill serves the Iloilo milling district in the sugar-producing zone of eastern Panay, accounting for a significant portion of the region's approximately 8 percent contribution to national production.

15. Central Azucarera de San Antonio (CASA)

CASA is the newest mill in the Chan family group, incorporated in 2003 and reaching full operations in 2008. It is the only Chan-group mill with a public-facing website, and operates separately from the family's Negros mills.

16. Capiz Sugar Central, Inc. (CSCI)

Founded in 1924, CSCI is among the more technology-forward mills in the Philippines. The La Filipina group runs data-driven crop management across its model farms and shares those practices with independent growers. The 2026 LandBank Anchor Firm agreement means CSCI now formally tracks production data linked to loan repayment, one of the first mill-level formal data-for-credit arrangements in the industry.

Eastern Visayas: 1 Mill

17. Hideco Sugar Milling Company (HISUMCO)

Founded December 6, 1990, Hideco is the only major sugar mill on Leyte island. All sugarcane farmers in Leyte's milling district deliver here. There is no alternative mill on the island. The company has a documented collective bargaining agreement with its workers' union under the National Conciliation and Mediation Board, Region 8.

Luzon: 4 Mills

18. Central Azucarera de Tarlac / Luisita Sugar

CAT is the only significant sugar mill in Luzon's main cane-growing area in Tarlac. The Hacienda Luisita connection carries a long history of agrarian reform proceedings: the Supreme Court ordered land distribution in 2011, and as of 2024, roughly 4,099 of 6,443 hectares had been distributed to farmer-beneficiaries.

19. CARSUMCO (Cagayan Robina Sugar Milling Company) — URC Sugar

CARSUMCO is the only sugar mill in Cagayan Valley, serving a geographically isolated milling district in northern Luzon and producing raw and refined sugar from cane grown in the Cagayan River basin.

20. URC-SURE Balayan

CADPI's closure in 2023 left hundreds of Batangas farmers without a mill. URC acquired the idle machinery, expanded the Balayan mill's capacity, and extended the milling season to absorb displaced growers. This mill now handles the entire Batangas sugar-producing area.

21. Peñafrancia Sugar Mill (PENSUMIL)

PENSUMIL began as BISUDECO (Bicolandia Sugar Development Co.) in the early 1970s under government ownership at 4,000 TCD, went bankrupt, transferred to the Asset Privatization Trust, and was eventually privatised by the Enrile Group. Bicol is a minor sugarcane region relative to Negros or Mindanao. The SRA maintains a dedicated PENSUMIL district office in Camarines Sur.

Mindanao: 4 Mills

Mindanao accounts for about 15 percent of national production, concentrated in Bukidnon with smaller operations in Davao del Sur and North Cotabato. The RSSI outbreak that has spread to Mindanao has added production pressure on farms in this region since early 2026.

22. Busco Sugar Milling Co., Inc.

Jerrie Chang acquired Busco from the Asset Privatization Trust in 1988 at 6,000 TCD and expanded it over decades to its current 18,000 TCD. It is the only integrated raw sugar and refinery operation in Mindanao. The mill recycles wastewater for agricultural irrigation, documented through the FAO Sustainable Technology Innovation portal. BPA maintains an online member platform for planters.

23. Crystal Sugar Company, Inc.

Crystal Sugar was built specifically to serve the grower expansion that Busco could not absorb. It is one of the few mills in the Philippines with a dedicated Planters Relations Officer. Because its President chairs PSMA, Crystal Sugar has more direct industry influence than its size alone would suggest.

24. Davao Sugar Central Company, Inc. (DASUCECO)

DASUCECO is one of two Filinvest-owned mills in Mindanao, both managed by the same executive team. In 2025, Filinvest's sugar business processed over one million metric tons of cane in a single milling season across both mills.

25. Cotabato Sugar Central Co., Inc. (COSUCECO)

COSUCECO was founded in 1978 and is the older of the two Filinvest mills in Mindanao. An 11 MW solar plant at the millsite was commissioned in December 2024. Like DASUCECO, it is managed by the same Filinvest team from their Makati offices.

Who Owns What: The Quick Map

A Note on Farmer Count Data

Specific numbers on farmers per milling district are not consistently published by either the SRA or individual mills. The clearest public data comes from Crystal Sugar (13,000 growers across 40,000 ha) and from the Bukidnon Planters' Association tied to Busco (approximately 4,000 members farming 10,000 ha). For most other mills, the SRA's milling district boundaries give a rough indication of coverage, but farmer headcounts depend on how each mill counts individual growers versus registered haciendas versus cooperative members, and those definitions vary across the industry.

The SRA publishes its Sugar Statistics annually at sra.gov.ph, and the SRA mill directory is at sra.gov.ph/stakeholders/directorySugarMills.

Frequently Asked Questions

Sources

• Sugar Regulatory Administration, Directory of Sugar Mills, CY 2024–2025 — sra.gov.ph/stakeholders/directorySugarMills
• Philippine Sugar Millers Association, Members List — psma.com.ph/members-and-industry-partners
• SugarPhilippines.com, Sugar Manufacturers Directory 2026 — sugarphilippines.com/blog/sugar-manufacturer-philippines/
• Wikipedia, Victorias Milling — en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victorias_Milling
• URC Sugar, Corporate News (SONEDCO expansion) — urc.com.ph
• JG Summit, SONEDCO Mill Opening 2019 — jgsummit.com.ph
• First Farmers Holding Corporation, History — firstfarmersholding.com/ffhc/history.php
• Crystal Sugar Company, About — crystalsugar.com.ph/website/about
• La Filipina Uygongco Group, Sugar Division — lafilgroup.com.ph/sugar-4/
• PIA, LandBank-CSCI MOA 2026 — pia.gov.ph
• Filinvest Group, Sugar Business — filinvestgroup.com/our-company/sugar/
• Manila Bulletin, Filinvest Million-Ton Milestone 2025 — mb.com.ph
• FAO STI Portal, Busco Sugar — sti-portal.fao.org/organizations/busco-sugar-milling-co-inc
• BusinessMirror, URC Balayan / CADPI Farmers 2023 — businessmirror.com.ph
• PhilStar, HPCO Ownership / Leviste Deal 2024 — philstar.com
• Visayas Daily Star, HPCO New Planters Group — visayandailystar.com
• LandBank, HDJ Bayawan Farmers Program — landbank.com
• GMA News, Teves Raid 2023 — gmanetwork.com