BIZ BUZZ: Sugar crisis

We’ve heard all about the shortage of sugar from the large companies that need them for production, as well as the consumers. But little has been heard about the crisis from the point of view of the millers/producers. Until now, that is.

Biz Buzz asked people in the know in the local sugar millers’ industry about the problem and found that, for them, the real problem is that the industrial users of sugar were not buying the precious commodity while it was still cheap.

But Typhoon “Odette” struck and sugar prices spiked.

So the solution now, according to them, is to free up the 127,000 metric tons that are already in the country and allocated purely for industrial users.

“The sad part of this industry is that we as producers sell our product at wholesale prices and purchase our inputs like fertilizer, fuel and pesticides at retail prices,” our source lamented. “On top of that, we are competing with countries like Thailand, Australia and Brazil who get some form of help and subsidy from their respective governments. While we here have been standing up on our own and self financing.”

Talk about a tough problem with no easy solutions.

—Daxim L. Lucas

Free rides

In-person classes in schools resumed last Monday and this means more commuters on the road and heavier traffic.

Motorcycle taxi hailing platform Move It is doing its part to ease the transport woes of public school teachers and personnel by offering free rides, which runs from Aug. 22 to Sept. 30 during school days.

Move It is hoping to service thousands of public school workers in the cities of Makati, Taguig, Pateros and Pasay. There are about 10,000 teachers and Department of Education (DepEd) personnel in these areas.

While the initiative will ease their daily commute challenges, the company said this would also allow them to save some time and money.

“Our public [school] teachers and personnel are our partners in molding the minds of the youth and our development; that’s why on the reopening of in-person classes, we want to show we are one with them through this free ride initiative,” Move It general manager Wayne Jacinto said in Filipino.

The DepEd earlier said that about 27.56 million students and 876,000 teachers are seen going back to schools with the resumption of in-person classes.

The Department of Transportation assured last month that the public transportation could handle the expected 15-percent passenger increase as a result.

—Tyrone Jasper C. Piad INQ

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