• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
Three planters’ federations are united in calling for the reduction in the volume of sugar importation to 350,000 metric tons, intended to serve as a two-month buffer stock of the commodity.
This was in contrary to the 450,000MT being proposed by the Department of Agriculture and the Sugar Regulatory Administration.
The National Federation of Sugarcane Planters (NFSP) headed by Enrique Rojas and the Panay Federation of Sugarcane Farmers (PANAYFED) led by Danilo Abelita, in a joint letter submitted to SRA, said that the arrival of 350,000 MT of sugar should arrive in two tranches after the close of the current milling season and before the opening of the coming milling season on September 2023.
In a joint statement, NFSP and PANAYFED disclosed that their common stand was reached in collaboration with the Confederation of Sugar Growers Associations (CONFED) headed by Aurelio Gerardo J. Valderrama, Jr., which submitted its stand to SRA last week, calling for a more conservative volume of importation, to arrive in two shipments of 175,000 MT each on July and August.
It also aims to minimize the effect on mill gate prices, when regular milling begins on September this year, the two sugar federations said.
Representing majority of sugar producers in the country, CONFED, NFSP and PANAYFED recently organized a sugar producers’ coalition called the Sugar Council, which serves as venue where sugar producers and other concerned stakeholders discuss issues and craft recommendations for submission to policy-makers that advance, promote and secure the continued viability of the sugar industry.
Earlier, the three federations jointly requested SRA to provide actual and projected sugar production and demand figures to justify the request by soft drink companies to import sugar.
When SRA announced that the country needs to import 450,000 metric tons of sugar as a two-month buffer stock, the sugar federations said they discussed again the proposal through the Sugar Council, and arrived at a more conservative figure for the proposed importation.*
