Agriculture groups split over planned sugar importation

Local producers welcomed a proposal to import up to 450,000 metric tons (MT) of sugar this year to temper skyrocketing retail prices yet others advised the Marcos administration to defer such plans until at least after the milling season.

The United Sugar Producers Federation (Unifed) rallied behind the Department of Agriculture’s (DA) recommendation to source sugar from abroad as selling prices remain high at more than P100 per kilogram (kg) as of writing.

Unifed president Manuel Lamata, however, said the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) should “program well the releases of these imported sugar to ensure that millgate prices will not be drastically affected to the detriment of the sugar farmers.”

Lamata said it would be up to the SRA to draft the guidelines and mechanics for the importation, adding the proposed volume of 400,000 to 450,000 MT is “acceptable” for a buffer despite speculation of a shortage by the end of the milling season.

While it recognizes the need to bring in sugar from overseas to maintain a considerable stock, National Federation of Sugarcane Planters (NFSP) reiterated its call for the government to reveal the actual and projected production and consumption data.

“Without knowing the actual and projected production and consumption figures for this crop year, we are groping in the dark as to the actual volume of imported sugar which we need for domestic consumption,” NFSP president Enrique Rojas said.

“Moreover … importation should be calibrated in volume and should arrive only after the close of milling, so that it will not depress millgate prices of sugar to the disadvantage of sugarcane farmers,” added Rojas.

Samahang Industriya ng Agrikultura (Sinag) pointed out it was not opposing any proposal to import if there really was a shortage. The group said the country should carry out the plan once the milling season ends.

“As far as we know, we are still at the peak of harvest/milling activities and there is abundant local stocks ng sugar at this point,” Sinag executive director Jayson Cainglet said.

“We have no opposition to importation if needed and if there is a real shortage and more importantly, it should not coincide with the local harvest or milling which are at their peak for both onion and sugar,” he added.

Discussions on sugar importation started when President Marcos, also the country’s agriculture chief, promised to maintain a two-month stock to depress selling prices.

In Metro Manila, refined sugar sells from P87 to P110 per kg as of Thursday from P60 per kg, the price that prevailed for most of last year. Brown sugar retails from P80 to P95 per kg from P45 per kg, based on the DA’s price monitoring.