SUGAR industry stakeholders are appealing for help particularly from the Land Bank of the Philippines and other government financial institutions after the local sugar industry experienced an “abnormal price drop.”
Bernardino Yulo, Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) board member representing planters, and Rolly Beltran, SRA board member representing millers, said if quedan financing at very minimal interest rates can be provided, sugar producers can still cope with the price plunge.
In a joint statement, the officials said the industry has experienced an abnormal price drop, in some cases as big as P200 in just two weeks.
“We are afraid that the drastic drop in sugar prices will cause a disastrous effect in the long term period. We are still at the height of the milling season and with the good weather, many sugar producers are taking this opportunity to harvest their sugar canes but many are afraid that if the trend of prices collapsing will continue, the producers will not have anything left to even think of planting for the coming crop year,” the statement read.
The SRA representatives also said based on Victorias Milling Co.’s figures, prices of sugar two weeks ago were at the range of P1,560 to P1,580 per 50-kilogram bag, compared to this week’s price of P1,375 per 50-kg bag of sugar which is just about the production cost.
“Vast majority of our stakeholders who are small planters and agrarian reform beneficiaries that comprise about 92 percent of sugar producers will not be able to survive this loss, much so in the midst of this national health crisis we are facing,” they said.
