• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
The National Federation of Sugarcane Planters (NFSP) expressed concern on what it calls excessive sugar importation under Sugar Order Number 8, Series of 22024-2025, issued by the Sugar Regulatory Administration.
NFSP president Enrique Rojas said that while they agreed to an initial importation of 150,000 metric tons, a larger volume has already entered the country, as of September 14.
“With a huge projected stock balance and the excessive importation under Sugar Order No. 8, sugar prices will suffer in the early months of the milling season, Rojas said in a statement issued by NFSP.
Under such a scenario, additional importation will be suicidal to the sugar industry, he stressed, noting that excessive importation has caused the decrease in sugar prices in past crop years.
“Our Federation has always called for controlled importation, particularly on the specific volume and schedule of the arrival of imported sugar, so that sugar prices will not be adversely affected,” Rojas emphasized.
The sugar federation also cried foul over newspaper reports that the NFSP has deemed it necessary to import due to damage caused by the RSSI pest on sugarcane crops.
It said that the news report makes it appear that they unconditionally support importation, solely on the basis of the RSSI infestation.
NFSP said that the news report maliciously misrepresented their statement.*
