Albay 2nd district Rep. Joey Salceda said several local industries are in danger of getting "killed" because of high sugar prices.
This would result to loss of jobs for Filipinos, which according to the House Committee on Appropriations chairman is already happening.
“The top 3-in-1 coffee brand in the country, Kopiko, is imported, because our domestic manufacturers can’t compete. Homegrown brand C2 is already being manufactured in Vietnam because Philippine sugar is expensive," Salceda said in a statement Friday, Nov. 4.
“The next thing you’re going to kill is domestic fruit canning and manufacturing, which is a major jobs provider in Mindanao. You’re going to kill softdrinks makers, where as much as 18 percent of costs are sugar," he said.
"Alcohol makers, some of the only true global Filipino brands, use a lot of sugar – as much as 9 percent of costs, based on IO tables," Salceda noted.
“And high sugar prices, because they are inputs to other sectors, are definitely affecting the prices of bread, softdrinks, alcoholic drinks, dairy, and other processed foods," he added.
Salceda bared that “Out of all the goods in the October inflation report, sugar represents the highest year-on-year increase at 34 percent. That is a form of self-harm or self-sabotage when global prices have already stabilized at more or less their 50-year average of 17-18 cents per pound.”
The Bicolano also cited that according to the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the global price of sugar is now at just around P24 per kilo, while retail prices in the domestic market fetch as high as P120 per kilo.
But amid the dire situation, Salceda insisted that prices of sugar “are almost completely within our power to lower".
“High corn, fuel, and electricity prices are primarily a matter of global conditions. But for sugar, because of our longstanding policy of misguided protectionism, we have it coming,” he said.
The economist-lawmaker opined: "The problem with high sugar prices isn’t just that consumers are bearing the brunt of it. It’s that Philippine industries consume more sugar than consumers do. And they’re in trouble if we don’t sort the situation out.”
“Some 66 percent of all sugar demand is as input to other Philippine industries. Only 34 percent is consumed in final form. So, very expensive sugar prices kill Filipino jobs,” Salceda said.