THE National Sugarcane Planters (NFSP) yesterday urged the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) to consider increasing the import clearance fee on other alternative sweeteners such as sucralose, aspartame and acesulfame potassium.

This after the SRA last week hiked the import clearance fee for high fructose corn syrup (HFCS).

“We laud SRA for increasing the import clearance for HFCS, which represents the dominant majority of sugar substitute being imported in the country,” said Enrique Rojas, NFSP president, in a statement yesterday.

“This corn-based sweetener has substantially displaced the demand for local sugar. We should commend SRA for taking this initiative to raise the import clearance for HFCS,” Rojas added.

But the group said SRA should not stop there.

Rojas said the group expressed hope the Department of Agriculture and the SRA “will act expeditiously on this concern to protect the welfare of hundreds of thousands of sugar farmers and their children.”

Import clearance fees on HFCS have been increased to P30 per equivalent 50 kg bag of sugar from P1.50 per bag. 

This forms part of SRA’s upcoming Sugar Order (SO) 4.

Another SO is being drafted as stakeholders raised alarm on the entry of “other sugars” under Tariff code HS1702.

The SO would require importers of items under HS1702 to secure an import clearance from SRA

SRA said the alleged volume of imports under HS1702 is estimated to be around 200,000 tons.