BY DOMINIQUE GABRIEL G. BAÑAGA
BACOLOD City – Pointing out that the milling season is now at its peak, the United Sugar Producers Federation (UNIFED) criticized the issuance of Sugar Order No. 3 by the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) that would allow the importation of 200,000 metric tons of sugar.
“This is appalling. The very agency that is supposed to protect us seems determined to kill the industry,” said UNIFED president Manuel Lamata.
UNIFED, based in Negros Occidental, is one of the biggest federations of sugar planters in the country.
Former SRA Board member Atty. Dino Yulo, meanwhile, described SRA’s import order as “adding insult to injury” and “very ill-timed.”
SRA, in justifying its order, said it would stabilize the rising cost of sugar and address the projected low productivity in sugar-producing areas affected by super typhoon “Odette” in December 2021.
However, Yulo said it is ironic that while the clamor for high price of sugar comes from small vendors, the one that will clearly benefit from the importation are industrial users, especially bottling companies that have been provided half of the import quota.
While SRA claims this is based on projection from industry stakeholders that there will be a shortage in sugar due to low production, especially in Negros that accounts for more than half of the country’s total production, the import volume is way too much, and importation should not be done when sugar milling is at its peak.
Lamata, on the other hand, said it is very frustrating for SRA to make this import order a priority when it has not even addressed UNIFED’s request last year to urge the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Trade and Industry to put a cap on fertilizer prices.
“They only see the increasing cost of sugar in the market but they do not acknowledge the forces driving those prices up. Much of these can be attributed to fertilizers that almost tripled its cost and fuel that has breached the P50 per liter mark,” Lamata said.
He added: “Whatever increase in sugar prices we are seeing in the market goes to our paying high cost of farm inputs.”
Lamata also said they have not been consulted on the importation. And while they knew that some planters’ groups agreed to the importation program, “they thought SRA and the DA will also give in exchange, fertilizers subsidies at the very least.”
“We are still in a midst of a crisis, and our sugar planters in southern Negros are still trying to recover from the effects of Odette, and here is another crisis that will hit us. We hope that SRA will reconsider and amend the order until it gets a good picture from the ground as to what import quantity is just needed to ensure that the industry is protected,” Yulo said./PN
