BACOLOD City – The recent declaration of the Department of Agriculture (DA) and Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) that there would be no more sugar importation until the end of the harvest season next year has failed to arrest the drop in mill gate sugar prices.
In a joint statement released by the Sugar Council and National Congress of Unions in the Sugar Industry (NACUSIP), the statement of Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. was apparently meant to allay fears that more importation would cause a further drop in sugar prices, but it failed to explain why sugar prices have steadily dropped over the past few weeks.
“At the Hawaiian Philippine Company sugar prices have dropped from P2,980.88 per bag for week ending (WE) October 20 to P2,815.99 per bag for WE November 10. That’s a price drop of P164.89 per bag in only three weeks. In other mills, sugar prices dropped to much lower rates as early as WE November 3,” the two groups pointed out.
They added: “An apparent decrease in demand has consequently caused the steady drop in prices.” They further stressed that this is a concern which SRA should address, as it reiterated worry over current oversupply of imported and locally-produced sugar, relative to demand, in the market.
Last week, Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. said there is no immediate need for additional imports, as domestic supply of both raw and refined sugar remains stable and sufficient to meet projected needs.
“Given the current situation, [SRA] Administrator [Pablo Luis] Azcona and I agreed that a decision on sugar importation could be delayed until after May, when the current harvest season ends,” the statement at the DA website quoted the secretary.
Per SRA Supply-Demand Situation Report dated October 20, 2024, of the 240,000 metric tons (MT) imported refined sugar authorized by Sugar Order No. 5, Series of 2023-2024 signed on August 8, 2024, only 135,833.20 MT have entered the market.
The same SRA report showed that, as of WE October 20, withdrawals for raw sugar dropped by 18.38 percent, while refined sugar withdrawals dropped by 20.18 percent, compared to the same period in the last crop year.
“What is equally worrisome is the fact that only 1,314 MT of refined sugar were produced by refineries as of WE October 20 compared to the 58,990 MT in the same period last year,” the groups said.
“It takes no stretch of the imagination to connect the drops in domestic demand and sugar prices to the entry of imported sugar, aside from sugar substitutes,” the Council and NACUSIP added. “If the ‘no further importation’ pronouncement aims to arrest the drop in mill gate sugar prices over the past weeks, the fundamentals to firm up prices are woefully absent.”/PN
