BACOLOD City – The National Federation of Sugar Workers (NFSW) blasted the Duterte administration for allowing the importation of 150,000 metric tons of sugar tariff-free.
NFSW chairman Danilo Rillo said importing sugar in a bid to address the rising prices of local products will just add to the “already miserable situation” of local sugar farmers.
The sugar workers’ group also hit the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) for permitting the “open sugar importation.”
Rillo said supplying the local market with imported sugar sold in a cheap price would not lower the product’s retail price, contrary to the justification made by the SRA.
He added that traders are the ones who manipulate sugar prices, not sugar producers.
Selling raw sugar from P1,600 to P1,700 per 5-kilogram bag as its “mill gate price” would only give sugar producers “little earnings,” said Rillo.
Despite this, the retail price of sugar would remain high, he added.
The NFSW said a genuine agrarian reform program is needed to solve this issue./PN
