Gov’t sets P5B to buy sugar from farmers

OFF TO THE MILL | Workers load into tractors the sugarcane harvested from a plantation in EB Magalona, Negros Occidental, in late 2023, for transport to a milling facility. (CONTRIBUTED PHOTO)

BACOLOD CITY, Negros Occidental, Philippines  — Planters and millers in the leading sugar-producing province of Negros Occidental heaved a sigh of relief after President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. approved an initial budget of P5 billion for the government to directly purchase sugar from farmers at a premium price.

Manuel Lamata, president of the United Sugar Producers Federation of the Philippines (Unifed), said on Sunday that they were grateful to Mr. Marcos for heeding their plea for government intervention to arrest the plummeting millgate prices of sugar.

It was Unifed, through Lamata, that first issued the appeal to the President for help amid continuous drop in sugar prices since the start of the milling season in September last year.

He asked the government, through the Philippine International Trading Corp. (PITC), to start buying millgate raw sugar at P2,800 per 50-kilo bags (LKg), which is P300 to P400 higher than the current millgate prices of P2,400 to P2,500 per LKg.

Sugar producers in Negros had earlier said that planters were losing because they were already spending P2,500 to produce a 50-kilobag of the commodity.

Sugarcane farming is considered the “lifeblood industry of the Negrense,” with 54 percent of its 540,386-hectare agricultural lands devoted to sugarcane plantations, according to data from the Negros Occidental provincial government.

Negros Occidental, also dubbed as the country’s “sugar capital,” also accounts for about 60 percent of the sugar produced in the country, making raw sugar as the province’s leading traditional export product, having nine operational sugar factories, seven of which have refineries, data from the Provincial Economic Development and Investment Center (Pedic) showed.

Unified move

Lamata hoped that PITC could start buying sugar from the sugar farmers across the country at a premium price in the first week of February.

He said Unifed took part in the recent discussion of the mechanics in implementing the buy-direct plan from the farmers at a premium price.

According to Lamata, about 5.5 million people nationwide are dependent on the sugar industry, about 3.9 million of whom are located on Negros Island, composed of the provinces of Negros Occidental and Negros Oriental. (Negros Occidental has a population of 2.6 million as of the 2020 census).

“Unifed will always look after the welfare of its members and the industry as a whole,” Lamata said.

The sugar industry in the province supports 21,795 sugarcane planters and 20,768 farmers cultivating a total 188,999.96 ha of cane lands, the Pedic data said.

In an apparent move to unite the sugar industry, the leaders of various groups comprising the industry sat down over the weekend to draw up measures and mechanics as the government gave its nod to intervene by buying sugar directly from the farmers at a premium price.

Sugar Regulatory Administrator Pablo Azcona said the last time industry stakeholders sat down together was eight years ago.

“We hope this will be the beginning of a unified industry that openly communicates and supports each other,” he said.