BY DOMINIQUE GABRIEL G. BAÑAGA
BACOLOD City – Importing 200,000 metric tons (MT) of sugar is not the solution to the high retail price of sugar in the local market, according to Negros Occidental 5th District’s congressman-elect Emilio Dino Yulo.
Sugar Order No.3 issued by the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) is allowing importation to supposedly tempter the rising local sugar prices.
“It will not reduce the price of sugar in the retail market,” said Yulo pointed out.
Data from the Department of Agriculture showed that the average retail price of refined sugar is P70, washed sugar at P60, and brown sugar at P60.
Yulo said the issuance of SO3 was “ill-timed.”
Importation should be after the end of the milling season, he stressed.
United Sugar Producers Federation (UNIFED) president Manuel Lamata blamed the greediness of some sugar traders for the high price of local sugar.
Lamata said traders are hoarding sugar to manipulate the market as if there is a shortage./PN
