• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
The Confederation of Sugar Producers Association Incorporated (CONFED) has sought government intervention to cushion the crushing economic impact on sugar farmers, amid challenges to the sugar industry that are expected to be aggravated by the war in the Middle East.
In a statement, CONFED asked the Department of Agriculture to “take up the cudgels for the agriculture sector,” by providing marginal farmers and agrarian reform beneficiaries fertilizer assistance and other forms of subsidy.
CONFED also called for the “implementation of our previously proposed ‘Purchase-and-Park’ Sugar Buying Program.”
“The first two measures are intended to help farmers in general, while the government-financed sugar buying program is proposed as the only real source of relief for sugar producers who continue to suffer from depressed millgate prices,” said CONFED president Aurelio Valderrama, in a letter to Agriculture Secretary and Sugar Board Chairman Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr., was which coursed through Dave Andrew Sanson, the Planters Representative to the Sugar Board.
“Fuel and fertilizer prices are already rising as a result of the current conflict in the Middle East between US/Israel and Iran. If not controlled, this will have a disastrous impact on food production and overall agricultural output, with already beleaguered farmers absorbing the hardest hit,” Valderrama pointed out.
“In this regard, we again offer to join a Technical Working Group (TWG) to work on the implementing details of the program,” he added.
During a side meeting among Sugar Regulatory Administrator Pablo Luis Azcona, Valderrama, and National Congress of Unions in the Sugar Industry of the Philippines (NACUSIP) President Roland de la Cruz at the House of Representatives on March 4, Azcona agreed to endorse the government-buying program being pushed by both CONFED and NACUSIP.
Valderrama underscored the need for continuous communication to address any challenging situation, stressing that stakeholders should always be willing to collaborate with each other because the sugar industry belongs to all stakeholders.*
