CEBU CITY, Philippines ? Sugar industry leaders on Thursday urged the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) to convert 10 percent of the country?s sugar into ?C,? or reserve, supply to prevent a plunge in prices.

Enrique Rojas, president of the National Federation of Sugarcane Planters Inc. (NFSP), explained that the supply of sugar would increase once sugar mills in the country start operating in a week or two.

But the monthly domestic demand could not absorb the rise in supply, which could result in lower prices of sugar, Rojas said in a letter to SRA Administrator Rafael Coscolluela.

Any decline in sugar prices from its present level would be detrimental to sugar producers still recovering from low prices in recent years, he added.

Manuel Lamata, United Sugar Producers Federation president, claimed that Wednesday?s drop in sugar prices in the Southern Negros Development Corp.?from P1,375 the previous week to P1,275??was pure price manipulation by traders.?

He said sugar at First Farmers sold at P1,420 per 50-kilo bag on Thursday.

But the drop in bidding prices this week in some areas was expected, Coscolluela said. Prices were just adjusting to a more realistic level.

Based on computations, traders did not make huge profits from the current prices of sugar since retail prices in Manila were pegged at P38 to P40 a kilo, Coscolluela pointed out.

?Something has to give. Industrial users are making noises about the rapid increase in sugar prices. Repackers and retailers will stop selling if the price ceiling is not increased to more remunerative levels while sugar producers are hoping that the current millgate prices will hold so they can recover from last year?s losses,? Coscolleula said.