SRA mulls over gov’t purchase of local sweetener

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The Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) will carefully study the proposals from various stakeholders for the government to purchase locally produced sugar to address the supply-demand imbalance resulting in lower prices for the sweetener.

“We will talk to the DA (Department of Agriculture) about what is possible and probably, the voluntary purchase and putting it in reserve is, of course, one of the things that we are thinking about,” SRA Administrator Pablo Luis Azcona said.

“We just have to find a way to ensure a stable supply to maintain a reasonable farm-gate price for farmers,” he told reporters.

READ: SRA to address concerns on ‘other sugar’ clearance

Three groups already wrote a letter to the SRA seeking an immediate government intervention to arrest declining sugar prices—the United Sugar Producers Federation of the Philippines, the Luzon Federation of Sugarcane Growers Association and sugar farmers from Mindanao who are organizing their federation.

Voluntary

Azcona said the SRA would assess the voluntary purchase program that was implemented in the last sugar crop year—September 2023 to August 2024—and enhance it as necessary to push up sugar prices for local farmers while leveling the playing field.

In crop year 2023-2024, the SRA introduced the first voluntary limited volume purchase of local raw sugar to encourage industry players to purchase sugar from local farmers in exchange for a guaranteed spot in the government’s importation programs.

“What we’re doing is we’re studying what we did last year and we’re finding ways to improve it more, make it a lot fairer for all the people who participate,” he said.

“[We will] make sure that the programs can be participated by anybody, as in technically anybody, just as long as they possess a domestic trading license. So be it a farmer, be it a farmer group, association, beverage maker, miller, any player as long as they are involved in the industry,” he added.

The SRA, via Sugar Order No. 2, allowed qualified traders to buy 300,000 metric tons of local raw sugar in a bid to stabilize farm-gate prices while “ensuring fair and reasonable retail prices.”

Azcona lamented the huge difference between the supply and demand, adding the price offered by farmers for their local harvests should be higher as both wholesale and retail prices have been stable.

As of Dec. 1, the mill-site price of sugar reached P2,498.55 per 50-kilogram bag (LKg), slightly up from last year’s P2,486.28 per 50-LKg bag. INQ