The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) is looking at the possibility of capping anew prices of sugar following reports of increases in the cost of the commodity.
DTI Undersecretary Ruth Castelo in a radio interview said if necessary, the agency and the Department of Agriculture (DA) can revive its 2018 program called PRD (Presyong Risonable Dapat) which set a suggested retail price on the commodity, at P50 per kilogram for refined and P45 for brown.
“We will look at sugar. We understand the price of sugar is going up that is why we are importing more,” Castelo said.
Castelo added the DTI will check if the price can be set at P50 or P55 for refined sugar.
“ We will discuss this with (DTI) Secretary (Ramon) Lopez and the DA and check how much the price should be,” she added.
Castelo did not have figures on how much imports will affect prices locally.
Based on yesterday’s monitoring of 13 public markets by the DA, the prevailing retail price of refined sugar rose by P10 per kg to P65 per kg from P55 last month.
The prevailing prices of washed sugar and brown sugar were up P2 and P5 respectively to P50 from P48 and P45, respectively. – Irma Isip
