A federation of local sugar producers lauded the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) for stopping the release of 150,000 metric tons (MT) of sugar to the market.
The United Sugar Producers Federation (UNIFED) said that SRA Resolution No. 2023-159 released on Thursday, Oct. 12, helped address the continously decreasing price of sugar amid the harvest season.
The resolution orders the lifting of the deadline set for importers under Sugar Order (SO) No. 7 to reclassify, distribute, and dispose imported refined sugar “until further notice,” and seeks to maintain “reasonable” farmgate prices of sugar.
“Nagpapasalamat kami sa SRA na ginagamit niya ang regulatory powers niya, kasi po bumaba na ang millgate price namin from P65 bumaba na sa P50 per kilo. Sobrang baba, hindi na maganda ‘yan, (We are thankful to the SRA that it utilized its regulatory powers because our millgate price went down to P50 per kilo from P65. It is very low, that’s not good),” UNIFED president Manuel Lamata said in a phone interview on Friday, Oct. 13.
As such, he noted that the current retail price of sugar only benefits traders, and not farmers and planters. Lamata said the current retail price of sugar is around P80 to P85 a kilo.
The UNIFED president said that the low farmgate price of sugar is causing the nation's sugar producers to lose money and that the high costs of fuel and fertilizer are seriously harming them.
Lamata said that, for them, the ideal farmgate price of sugar should be around P60 to P65 per kilo.
With the order of SRA, he said that sugar producers are expecting the farmgate price of sugar to increase.
Sugar harvest in full-scale
According to the UNIFED president, the country’s sugar harvest is currently in “full scale.”
“Maganda naman po ang harvest. Wala tayong problema doon sa supply (The harvest is good. We don't have a problem with the supply),” said Lamata.
He said the 150,000 MT of imported sugar will remain as buffer stock as the country now has enough supply of sugar.
“More or less this year we produced 1.750 million metric tons so we are hoping makagawa tayo ng (we can produce) 1.85 million, 1.9 million so medyo nag-increase na tayo (we increased our production a little),” he noted.