The Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) announces on Thursday, December 21, 2023, that “based on the current demand figures, there is no apparent need to import any sugar” for now. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
BACOLOD CITY — The Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) on Thursday announced that no further sugar importation will take place, and that the government is seriously considering directly buying sugar from farmers to arrest the drop in farmgate prices.
SRA Administrator Pablo Luis Azcona’s announcement douses speculation that more sugar imports are coming.
“Based on the current demand figures, there is no apparent need to import any sugar,” he said.
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President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., he said, was aware of the sugar industry’s problem and is on top of it.
“If there is really an oversupply of sugar, its retail prices should have dropped also,” Azcona said.
Sugar industry leaders have attributed the drop in farmgate prices to P2,500 per Lkg and below from an expected P3,000 per Lkg to an oversupply of imported sugar.
They also pointed out that while farmgate prices have dropped, retail prices of sugar remain high.
Azcona said the government is also seriously considering buying sugar directly from farmers at higher prices early next year to boost farmgate prices.
“Government will buy sugar directly from the farmers at a higher price to be sold to consumers at a lower price,” he said.
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Azcona said government funds are available for the direct buying plan and that they are just working on the mechanics for its implementation.
He said he has also written to the United States Department of Agriculture to request that the Philippines be included in its sugar quota.
“There are producers and traders who have volunteered to provide the sugar to fill a US sugar quota allocation granted to the Philippines,” Azcona said.
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All the previous sugar imports, he said, were based on available data and none of the imports were made in haste or without basis.
“The only problem that we’ve seen so far is the historical numbers for demand or withdrawals (of sugar) has actually dropped significantly,” Azcona said.
The drop, he said, has been about 20 percent in raw sugar and about 11.5 percent in refined sugar.
Azcona said there’s a lot of farmers complaining of lower sugar yield this crop year.