The Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) will expand the availability of sugar that will be sold at P70 per kilogram.
The agency said in a statement yesterday price capped sugar will also now be available in SRA’s headquarters in both Quezon City and Bacolod as well as through the Department of Agriculture’s (DA) Kadiwa rolling stores.
To make the move sustainable, the SRA also asked each importer under the sugar importation policy for crop year 2022-2023 to commit 10 percent of their imported sugar allocation to be sold through DA at P70 per kg.
The SRA said this is a temporary measure while waiting for sugar milling to be in full swing when local supply is sufficient.
Last August, supermarket chains such as Robinsons, SM, Puregold as well as S&R Membership Shopping agreed to cap the price of the sugar they sell at P70 per kg in Metro Manila.
Based on the DA’s monitoring of public markets in the National Capital Region, as of yesterday October 17, prevailing retail prices are at P105 per kg for refined sugar, washed sugar at P90 per kg and brown sugar at P85 per kg.
As for SRA’s millsite prices monitoring, composite price of raw sugar as of October 2 was at P3,798.24 per 50 kg bag.
However, SRA said the discounted sugar are intended for direct consumers and are not for resale to make the commodity more affordable and accessible.
The SRA through Sugar Order 2, allowed the entry of 75,000 metric tons (MT) of refined sugar for industrial users and another 75,000 MT for the use of consumers to arrive on or before November 15.
As of October 14, SRA has issued clearances for imported sugar to 13 international traders with a total volume of 33,772.50 MT of refined sugar that is intended for consumers and end users and another 6,625 MT that is intended for industrial users.
Meanwhile, the Bureau of Customs (BOC) yesterday said it seized 76 containers of refined sugar worth P228 million from Thailand after the consignee failed to present an import clearance from the SRA.
BOC in a statement said Customs Commissioner Yogi Filemon Ruiz led BOC agents in inspecting the containers after the Customs Intelligence, and Investigation Service-Manila International Container Port (CIIS-MICP) requested the issuance of an Alert Order on October 4.
Based on intelligence reports, the shipment, which arrived at the MICP on September 24, contained “misdeclared and undeclared” items.
As a result, the BOC issued two Warrants of Seizure and Detention against the shipment for violating Sections 117 and 1113 of the Customs Modernization and Tariff Act.
