‘Other sugar’ traders soon to pay higher import fees

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The Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) is finalizing an order requiring traders to pay import clearance fees before bringing into the country “other” types of sugar.

“The proposal is, I think, P30 for HFCS (high fructose corn syrup) per equivalent bag. And then P10, if I remember right, for other [sugars],” SRA Administrator Pablo Luis Azcona said on the sidelines of the opening of Kadiwa ng Pangulo Expo 2024 in Pasay City.

Other sugars refer to chemically pure lactose, maltose, glucose, and fructose, among others.

READ: SRA denies claims of sugar surplus in PH

Azcona said the draft sugar order would be discussed in the next SRA board meeting for possible release in December.

The United Sugar Producers Federation of the Philippines earlier raised the alarm over the influx of “other sugars” entering the country.

Similarly, the Sugar Council and the National Congress of Unions in the Sugar Industry of the Philippines wrote a letter to Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr., pointing out that the importation and use of artificial sweeteners could cause the widespread displacement of sugar farm workers.

“The effort is not to regulate at the moment. Our efforts are meant to gather accurate data and determine the volume and types of [other sugars] arriving in the country,” he said.

Azcona said around 200,000 to 300,000 metric tons of “other sugars” have entered the archipelago based on informal information gathered.

Importers of HFCS in the past paid P30, which was then slashed to the current P1.50 per bag. The SRA had said this was “suspected to partly cause demand for domestic sugar [to stagnate] in the past few years.”