• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
Sugar farmers aired apprehensions over the proposed lowering of import fees on sugar alternatives, which they say might trigger the influx of more sugar substitutes in the country and cause sugar millgate prices to drop further.
In a joint statement, the Sugar Council and the NACUSIP (National Congress of Unions in the Sugar Industry of the Philippines) disclosed that the Sugar Regulatory Administration is planning to reduce the proposed P10 per 50-kilo bag raw sugar equivalent of alternative sweeteners under Tariff Line 1702, such as glucose, fructose, artificial honey, palm sugar, maltose, and others.
“In a news report published December 19, by BusinessWorld Online, Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel stated that competition from imported artificial sweeteners could have caused the drop in millgate sugar prices,” they said.
The Sugar Council and NACUSIP said they wrote a letter to Laurel asking his help in providing them data on the impact of artificial sweeteners on the consumption of locally produced sugar.
Apparently in response to the request, the SRA prepared the draft of a sugar order imposing a P10 import clearance fee, while soft drinks and beverage manufacturers reportedly objected to the amount, claiming that it would be inflationary.
They said the SRA accommodated the objection, and “decided to lower the prospective import clearance fee by a ‘considerable’ amount’.”
While they welcomed the SRA’s proposed sugar order to monitor the volume of those imports, the Sugar Council and NACUSIP said that lowering the proposed P10 import clearance fee might increase the importation of those sugar substitutes and cause millgate sugar prices to drop further.
Except for a slight increase last week, millgate sugar prices have been plummeting from a weekly average high of P2,827.85 per 50-kilo bag in the week ending October 20 to P2,498.55 in the week ending December 1, according to the latest SRA Weekly Millsite Prices of Raw Sugar and Molasses Report.
At one mill, two weeks ago, the millgate price of sugar plunged as low as P2,450 per bag, which is barely above the cost of production.
Among the factors being blamed for the drop in prices are the untimely arrival, at the milling season’s start, of 240,000 metric tons of imported refined sugar under Sugar Order No. 5 for Crop Year 2023-2024, and the importation of artificial sweeteners. Imported refined sugar and imported sugar substitutes displaces the demand for locally produced raw and refined sugar.
The Sugar Council and NACUSIP pointed out that stiffer measures should be imposed to discourage the entry of all kinds of sugar substitutes and artificial sweeteners in the country, to safeguard the livelihood of thousands of sugarcane farmers and their families.
“Instead of discouraging the entry of these imported products which displace locally produced sugar, why is SRA proposing a lower import clearance fee for these imported sweeteners?” the Sugar Council and NACUSIP asked.*
