Brief
History
Davao Sugar Central Co., Inc. is a sugar mill and refinery established in 1970 at Salutillo St., Guihing, Hagonoy, Davao del Sur. It was then popularly known as DASUCECO. In 1990, the Gotianun family took over the operations and rebuilt the factory to a milling capacity of 5,000 tons cane per day (TCD), from its original 4,000 TCD. It has an attached refinery producing 6,000 refined sugar bags per day.
Davao Sugar produces its own fuel during milling. The bagasse from sugarcane is burned in the boiler to produce steam. Steam is then used to produce its own electricity. It also maintains environment-friendly facilities by building an ash scrubber and a waste water treatment facility in 2006.
Davao Sugar, as it is better known today, sits on a 45 has. land. It employs over 300 hundred of regular employees and seasonal workers. During milling season, usually during drier months, from November to April, it operates on 3-shift basis, two weeks straight then shutdowns for 16-hour equipment cleaning. On other months, it does factory maintenance. It sources its cane from private farmers located in Davao del Sur, Sarangani and South Cotabato. A sister corporate farm, High Yield Sugar Farms Corporation (formerly Filinvest Farms Corp.) also supports the mill with sugar cane from about 1,500 has. of leased land.
Davao Sugar produces raw sugar (brown) and refined sugar (white) with molasses as by-product. Raw sugar produced is shared with the planters/farmers at 62%-38%, 62% for the farmer. The mill share raw sugar and refined sugar are sold to softdrink companies, industrial users and local traders in Mindanao and Manila through its holding company, the Pacific Sugar Holdings Corp. Molasses, as well, are sold to feed millers, distilleries and local traders.
