ILOILO City – President Rodrigo Duterte recently halted the exportation of class “A” sugar to the United States (US).
In line with this, the Sangguniang Panlalawigan (SP) ng Iloilo thanked the President, the Department of Agriculture (DA), and Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) through a resolution dated April 13, for putting to end the exportation or sale of class “A” sugar to US.
The decision of SRA to stop the exportation of class “A” sugar is contained in its issued Sugar Order No. 1-A, Series of 2020-21 that amended the Sugar Order No. 1, Series of 2020-21 regarding the sugar policy for crop year 2020-2021 mandating that the class “B” sugar or domestic sugar should be 100 percent instead of only 93 percent allocation and class “A” sugar or for US market is now zero percent instead of seven percent.
Class “A” sugar is sold to the US at a much lower price of P350 per bag or P7,000 per metric ton.
Third District board member Matt Palabrica said the sugarcane farmers are losing P350 per 50-kilogram bag of sugar classified as “A” sugar exported to the US.
According to him, the decision of SRA to stop the classification of class “A” sugar and all sugar should be considered as “B” will help the sugarcane farmers in alleviating their income.PIA/PN
