• CHERYL G. CRUZ
The Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) Board has stopped the conversion and distribution of about 100,000 to 150,000 metric tons of imported sugar into the market until such time that the volatile farm gate price is stabilized.
SRA Administrator Pablo Luis Azcona said in a press conference Oct. 12 that they decided to put on hold the reclassification applications for about 100,000MT of imported sugar until the farm gate prices stabilize.
Azcona said “it is not normal for prices of sugar to go up and down by P100 or more on a weekly basis” and admitted that the “market has been very abnormal”.
He cited that last week, bidding was at P2,788 per 50 kilo-bag of sugar, but it went down to P2,501 yesterday.
“There was a scary P287 drop in one week. We should figure out how to put a stop to that. It is our duty to our farmers and millers, our stakeholders, to try and find a way to keep the price stable,” Azcona stressed.
“Right now, the farm gate price is down by P60 to P50, retail is P82 to P110. The spread between farm gate to retail has actually widened significantly, and for me, this is alarming; we’re hurting the farmers, we’re hurting the consumers,” Azcona said. “If the farm gate price decreases, we should also see a decrease in the retail side.”
He added that in the past seven months, the farm gate prices have been going down significantly but retail prices have actually maintained. “Somebody is profiteering somewhere; we have to find a way to control that, kawawa naman ang consumers and farmers”.
One such measure is SRA Board Resolution 2023-159, dated Sept. 26, but was made public Oct. 12, that lifted the deadline for the 30-day conversion and disposition of imported refined sugar, required under Sugar Order (SO) No. 7.
SO 7, issued by the SRA Board July 6 this year, authorized the importation of 150,000MT of refined sugar which should have arrived in the Philippines not later than Sept. 15 and automatically classified as “C” (Reserve Sugar), subject to future disposition or reclassification”.
Eligible importers were given not later than one month from actual arrival of shipment and reclassification to completely distribute their allocations.
But the SRA Board said that, “in order to maintain a reasonable volume of sugar available for domestic use, protect the interests of the farmers and millers, and sustain a reasonable farmgate price of raw sugar of about P3,000 per bag, it is necessary to hold in abeyance all applications of conversion and maintain the classification of all imported sugar as ‘Reserved’”.
Despite the fact that the average retail price of sugar remains the same, the average farmgate price of raw sugar, which hovered between P2,500 to P2,750 per bag during the first two weeks of Crop Year 2023-2024 continues to go down, to the detriment of the sugar farmers, allegedly by reason of oversupply, the SRA said in the resolution.
It added that the resolution was issued to protect the interest of sugarcane farmers and millers, and to stop speculations that reserve sugar will be released to the market. | CGC
