ILOILO City – Sugar has become expensive, particularly refined or white sugar. Both retailers and consumers are not pleased.
How much does sugar cost now?
Iloilo Central Market vendor Jose Jocon gave these prices:
* P100 per kilo of white or refined sugar
* P78 per kilo of muscovado
* P76 per kilo of wash sugar
* P74 per kilo raw sugar
These current sugar prices are higher by P6 to P8 per kilo from their last month’s price.
A shortage in sugar supply is being blamed for the price increase.
According to Jocon, the price per sack of refined sugar also increased – from P4,200 in July to P4,600 this August.
The increase has forced Jocson to stop selling refined sugar; consumers have stopped buying sugar anyway, he said, or have scaled-down the volume they buy.
“Ang refined sugar tama na kamahal; indi na gid maginansyahan. Amo na nga mas maayo na lang indi magbaligya para at least makabulig ka pa gani butong paidalom sang demand,” said Jocson.
Nobody buys a kilo of sugar anymore, he observed, but instead just half a kilo or even a quarter of a kilo.
Hearing consumers complain about the price of sugar have become par for course now, Jocson added.
“Pero asta man lang sa kumod. Pareho man lang kami nagakumod,” said Jocon.
Another vendor at the Iloilo Central Market said he does not sell refined sugar anymore because he could no longer afford to buy in bulk from his supplier. The price has increased by P500, he said.
He hopes the national government, particularly the Department of Agriculture, can temper sugar prices.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has acknowledged that there may be a need to import sugar to stabilize domestic prices of the commodity but noted that the Philippines may only need 150,000 metric tons (MT), half of the 300,000 MT earlier proposed by the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA).
“There is a possibility that by October, our supply in the Philippines will be depleted. We might need to import, but only a few, not as much as the [metric] 300,000 tons they said before. Perhaps 150,000 [metric] tons would be good for the entire year),” said Marcos.
Marcos, the concurrent Secretary of the Department of Agriculture (DA) and SRA chairperson, maintained there is no sugar supply shortage.
He also stressed the need to cut down imports to the barest minimum, noting that more imports would cause a struggle for Filipino farmers.
“I saw that there is enough supply in the Philippines. So, I said, why don’t we prioritize that because that is from the Philippines and we have also imported something that is now in inventory. So, before we import more sugar, we should use up the supply here first),” he added.
Marcos said he is implementing the same policy for other food imports such as rice and wheat./PN
