- GILBERT BAYORAN
Amid the sugar importation, its millgate price went down, from P3,300 to P2,800 per 50kilogram bag, said former Sugar Regulatory Administration board member, and now Negros Occidental 5th District Rep. Emilio “Dino” Yulo III.
Yulo stressed the need for the SRA to manage millgate prices, so as not to affect small sugar farmers.
“What is important is that we should continue to maintain that profitability level of our farmers,” he said.
“This is the only time that our small farmers, especially those in the hinterlands, mill their sugarcane as summer is coming already,” Yulo added.
He clarified, however, that “it is too early to say that the decrease in the prices is (due to) the effect of sugar smuggled into the country”.
“Sugar is a political commodity. It is easily affected by the current scenarios and environment. I presume that the decrease in farm gate prices is a product of the concern of stakeholders of the industry over these allegations,” Yulo pointed out.
The National Federation of Sugarcane Planters (NFSP) and the Panay Federation of Sugarcane Farmers (PanayFed), earlier expressed fears that the sugar importation will lead to further drops in prices.
The SRA recently issued Sugar Order No. 6, allowing the importation of 440,000 metric tons of refined sugar.
Senator Risa Hontiveros, however, said a large volume of imported sugar arrived in the country ahead of the SO 6 issuance.
Malacañang officials maintained that there was no irregularity in the government’s importation of sugar.
Earlier, Agriculture Senior Undersecretary Domingo Panganiban said he considered the memorandum issued by Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, dated Jan. 13, as a “sugar order” to proceed with the importation to augment the country’s tightening supply of the commodity and to prevent price surges.
Meanwhile, Negros Occidental Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson warned that the drop in the farm gate prices of sugar will badly affect the small farmers, mostly from the province.
Lacson said that excessive sugar entering the country will drive down millgate prices and hurt the industry that is already reeling from the high prices of fertilizer and fuel.
Yulo, meanwhile, said he is compiling all the documents needed amid calls from stakeholders for Congress to conduct an investigation into allegations of smuggling of sugar, without any sugar order.
“Any investigation should be about getting to the bottom of all these claims and establishing the timeline from these,” he added.
Yulo said: “If we base the performance of the current executives of the SRA on the prices of sugar, they were ok (the past months) until the drop in the farm gate prices.”
The SRA estimates that the local sugar industry can only produce 1.9 million metric tons while our domestic consumption is pegged at 2.3 million to 2.4 million metric tons, he said.
“It is ok to import sugar as long as farm gate prices every week are not affected, until the end of the milling season,” Yulo added./GB
