The Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA), along with the Department of Agriculture (DA) and the Bureau of Customs, said agents have seized smuggled sugar from Thailand, brought in by a multi-purpose cooperative.
Four container vans loaded with 2,000 50-kg bags of refined sugar, with an estimated retail value of P9 million were seized, the three agencies said during the inspection in Manila City, on Thursday.
“We cannot let these illicit trading practices undermine the agriculture sector and hurt our farmers, particularly those in the sugar industry,” Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. said.
The shipment, which arrived on April 29 at the Port of Manila from the port of Thailand, was loaded with two container vans of refined sugar imported by the Roxas City-based Lapaz Multipurpose Cooperative without any permit or import allocation from the SRA, the joint press statement of the three agencies said.
They added that the LMC also did not possess a clearance to release imported sugar.
Meanwhile, the two other container vans, which arrived in January from Vietnam, also contained refined sugar, as tests by the SRA showed, but were misdeclared as sweetener mix, in a bid to get lower tariff.
The three agencies said that if the cargo, which has been declared abandoned by the consignee on record, the Yabai OPC, was allowed through Customs, the government would have lost P1.8 million worth of import tax.
“The closer coordination among government agencies to clamp down on smuggling, as well as the implementation of the Anti-Agricultural Economic Sabotage Law, which does not allow bail, should put fear on these illicit traders,” Tiu Laurel added.
The SRA added that samples of sugar that were seized were found to be positive with mesophilic bacteria at 3,775 CFU/10g (colony-forming units per 10 grams) against a safe standard of no more than 200 CFU/10g.
The DA also instructed the SRA to blacklist the LMC and Yobai, both registered sugar traders and importers.
The DA emphasized that its Inspectorate and Enforcement (DA-IE) office already seized P2.83 billion worth of smuggled farm goods in 2024, or around P1 billion higher compared to the level in 2023.
From January through May 19 this year alone, the DA-IE already seized and condemned smuggled farm goods worth a total P407.6 million.
Meanwhile, SRA administrator Pablo Azcona also told reporters at the sidelines of the inspection that the sugarcane infestation by the red striped soft scale insects (RSSI) based on location has now affected a total of 191.33 hectares and 115 farmers in the Visayas as of May 26, 2025.
RSSI is a sugarcane pest that can reduce sugar content by almost 50 percent.
“We were able to contain this pest in Luzon. It is just quite hard to contain it now in Negros because it’s harvest season. So, sugarcane and trucks and people are traveling north to south. So, it’s quite a bit hard to control but once harvest is over this month, it will be a lot easier to contain,” Azcona explained.
