The United Sugar Producers Federation (UNIFED) and other sugar industry stakeholders have criticized as ill-timed and favorable to industry users the importation of 200,000 metric tons (MT) of sugar at the peak of the sugar milling season.
The Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) on Feb. 4, 2022 issued Sugar Order No. 3 (SO3) allowing the importation purportedly to stabilize the rising cost of sugar and the expected low productivity in sugar producing areas affected by Typhoon Odette.
SO3 also specified that 100,000 MT of the capacity will be for standard grade refined sugar while the rest will be for bottler’s grade refined sugar.
Bernardino Yulo, former SRA board member representing farmers, said the issuance is very ill-timed and will only benefit industrial users, “especially bottling companies have been provided half of the import quota.”
Yulo added while SRA claims the SO3 issuance is based on projections from industry stakeholders of a shortage in sugar due to low production in sugar lands especially in Negros that was severely devastated by Odette, “the import volume is way too much and not at this time when sugar milling is at its peak.”
Negros accounts for more than half of the country’s total production and based on latest data, Odette’s damage to sugarcane crops reached as much as P1.2 billion.
Yulo said he remains hopeful SRA will reconsider and amend the order until the agency “gets a good picture from the ground as to what quantity is just needed to ensure that the industry is protected.”
Manuel Lamata, UNIFED president, said the increase in sugar prices is due to the high cost of farm inputs.
“(It is) very frustrating for SRA to make this import order a priority when it has not even addressed our request to urge the Department of Agriculture (DA) and the Department of Trade and Industry to put a cap on fertilizers’ cost which was put forth since last year,” Lamata said.
“They only see the increasing cost of sugar in the market but they do not acknowledge the forces driving those prices up and much of it can be attributed to fertilizers that almost tripled its cost and fuel that has breached the P50 per liter mark,” Lamata added.
Prior to Typhoon Odette, the United States Department of Agriculture projected that the Philippines’ sugar production for crop year 2021-2022 will be flat at 2.1 million MT as low productivity remains an issue, apart from the continued discussion of trade liberalization in the country.
Based on DA’s monitoring of 13 public markets, prevailing retail price of refined sugar as of last Friday is at P65 per kilogram while both washed and brown sugar are at P50 per kg.
