CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY —- A sugar mill company based in Bukidnon province assured the government that it is not hoarding even a single bag of sugar.

“We can prove to you that Crystal is not hoarding even a single bag,” said Javier Sagarbarria, vice president for administration and resident manager of Crystal Sugar Milling Inc.

“The sugar supply left in Crystal is only 390,000 bags. That’s for the Crystal, including the traders. That’s what I said, how can we hoard if our sugar supply runs out, that there are a few left,” he added in vernacular.

Sagarbarria made the statement during a press conference on Thursday, Aug. 25, following a recent visit of the Bureau of Customs (BOC) region 10 and other government agencies at the company’s warehouse in North Poblacion, Maramag town in Bukidnon on August 23.

Sagarbarria said that the majority of the 390,000 bags left in their warehouse are owned by the traders who bought the supply from the planters. The said company has eight planters associations.

The said sugar mill company can produce almost 3 million of 50-kilo bags per year, of which 66 percent are from the planters.

The company vice president stressed that they are not hiding sugar supply as the planters are the ones who sell their supply to the traders.

“As far as Crystal is concerned, once the traders paid the planters or producers, the supply is already owned by them and they can deliver the supply anywhere. We are no longer in control of that,” explained Sagarbarria in vernacular.

According to the BOC-10 Customs Intelligence and Investigation Service (CIIS), during its visit, the Crystal Sugar Milling had 466,142 bags of sugar, of which 264,000 were already sold by the traders but still haven’t been pulled out from the warehouse.

In a press release from the Office of the Press Secretary on August 24, the visitation of the composite team in the said sugar mill company in Bukidnon was launched following the intelligence report that the company was allegedly involved in hoarding of sugar supply.

The continuous inspection by BOC, Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) and other law enforcement agencies of different sugar companies in the country is part of the directive of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to lower the price of sugar.

Sagarbarria said Crystal still has sugar stocks until the next milling tentatively scheduled in the first week of November this year.

“If there is no supply, the price will increase. So what we are doing now, we are controlling in order for our stocks from the warehouse to reach until the first week of November,” said Sagarbarria.

In a BOC-10 statement released on August 26, the composite team also visited the warehouse of BUSCO Sugar Milling Corporation in Barangay Butong, Quezon town also in Bukidnon on Aug. 24.

The said warehouse contained 110,674 bags of sugar, of which 26,000 are raw and the remaining bags are already refined, said BUSCO officer-in-charge Ellen Villaflora.

The two sugar mill companies assured the authorities that their products are locally produced and continuously serving the regions of Northern Mindanao and Davao.

However, the authorities have still required the said companies to produce the necessary documents to support their claims of being local sugar producers. They also need to submit their respective sugar monitoring system reports.