• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
A total of 25,300 metric tons (MT) of raw sugar from Negros Occidental are now being loaded in a cargo vessel docked at the Bredco Port in Bacolod City for shipment to the United States.
Last month, the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) approved the export of such volume to fulfill the country’s US sugar quota allocation.
“The intention of this voluntary US export of 25,300 MT of locally produced raw sugar is to allow the Philippines to fulfill, after a non-compliance of more than three years, its obligations under the significantly reduced US Raw Sugar Tariff-Rate Quota World Trade Allocation,” according to the Sugar Order No. 3 issued by SRA.
SRA Administrator Pablo Luis Azcona said the Philippines was previously unable to meet its US export quota commitments due to insufficient output.
Azcona, who inspected the manual loading of raw sugar on Saturday (Aug. 17), thanked the traders who participated in the program, even if they are exporting sugar now at an estimated loss of P900 to P1,200 per bag.
About 30 sugar traders heeded the call of the administration last year to buy domestic sugar to stabilize farm gate prices that dropped to a low of P2,400 per bag.
In exchange, the program allowed these traders the opportunity to import and export when needed.
These traders bought raw sugar then at an average price of P2,700 per bag and sold it at the US export price of P1,800 per bag or a loss of P900 per bag.
Given that these traders will also be given the chance to import refined sugar, the cost of money and other fees they incurred will probably give them just a little profit to recoup their expenses, Azcona said.
With an estimated 1,500 metric tons being loaded everyday, Azcona said it will take 15 days to load the shipment, if weather permits, and 30 days more for the cargo to reach US soil.
He also thanked Bacolod City Mayor Alfredo Abelardo Benitez for lifting the truck ban for sugar loaded trucks en route to the port to hasten the loading of US bound sugar.
While Bacolod City has a standing truck ban in the city proper from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on weekdays, it accommodated SRA’s request to allow uninterrupted loading of sugar within 15 days otherwise, the exporters will be charged additional fees for each day of delay, unless disruption of loading is weather-related. | GB
