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Sugar importation will not resolve retail prices issue – Yulo

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BY GILBERT P. BAYORAN

The importation of 200,000 metric tons of sugar, as stipulated in Special Order Number 3 issued by the Sugar Regulatory Administration, will not resolve the high retail prices of sugar in the local market, disclosed Negros Occidental 5th District Representative-elect Emilio “Dino” Yulo.

Yulo, who once served as SRA board member, said that the importation of sugar is geared towards industrial users.

Even if it will arrives, it will not reduce sugar prices in the retail market, he stressed.

UNIFED president Manuel Lamata blamed the greed of some sugar traders that triggered the high prices of sugar in the market, noting that traders are hoarding sugar to manipulate the market “as if there was a shortage.”

The Sugar Regulatory Administration claimed that the sugar supply situation in the Philippines has taken a turn for the worse, as manufacturers are now forced to source the product locally, competing with already limited supplies in the market.

The latest data from the Department of Agriculture shows that the average retail price of refined sugar stood at P70, washed sugar at P60, and brown sugar at P60.

Yulo maintained that the issuance SO3 was ill-timed.

The importation program, challenged by sugar planters’ groups in court, did not start on the right foot, he stressed.

The importation program should be after the end of milling season. It would have been easy for sugar producers, as well as other stakeholders, to accept that there is a need to import sugar, the former SRA board member said.

As to continued conflict between SRA Administrator Herminigildo Serafica and sugar industry stakeholders, Yulo, who is pushing for a Negrense to head SRA, said “I think that only reflects on the SRA leadership, that until the end of this administration, we cannot unite the industry.”

“It is imperative for a leader to unite the stakeholders,” he added.*

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