The spike in the retail prices of sugar in the market is mainly caused by the delay in the implementation of Sugar Order 3 (SO3) which could have facilitated the entry of additional supply as early as last month, according to the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA).
The Department of Agriculture’s (DA) monitoring of 13 public markets in the National Capital Region as of June 22 showed the prevailing retail prices of most sugar products went up compared to last month.
Refined sugar is now at P80 per kg from P70 per kg, while washed sugar is now at P65 per kg from P60 per kg. Brown sugar is unchanged at P60 per kg.
SRA’s millsite monitoring showed the composite price of raw sugar as of June 12 was at P2,313.33 per 50 kg bag, compared to P2,342 per 50 kg bag the previous week, a decrease of over 1 percent.
“If SO3 had been implemented according to schedule, we would have been able to address the demand of the manufacturers early on, prices would not be this high and our raw sugar and refined sugar supply would not be at this critical volume,” Hermenegildo Serafica, SRA administrator, said in a statement.
“Majority of our local production is purchased by the manufacturers. By addressing the need of the manufacturers, we would have alleviated the demand and the retail market would have stable sugar supply and prices,” he added.
SO3 would have allowed the arrival of as much as 200,000 metric tons (MT) of sugar as early as May but was slapped with a writ of preliminary injunction causing a delay. The DA and the SRA implemented albeit belatedly the order in other regions except in Western Visayas.
“It is only now that imported sugar is starting to trickle in. It will take some time before the total volume of 200,000 MT of imported sugar would have arrived in the country due to logistical concerns. In fact, it would take a minimum of three weeks for a sugar shipment from Thailand to arrive in the Philippine ports,” Serafica said.
SRA said sugar production has hit 1.8 million MT as of June 15, likely the total output for the crop year 2021-2022 ending August. The expected ending volume for the crop year is lower by 16 percent than the country’s 2.14 million MT production for crop year 2020-2021.
