• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
A significant drop in the price of sugar, at an average of P100 per 50 kilogram per bag this week, has alarmed sugar farmers, prompting them to seek the intervention of the Sugar Regulatory Administration and Department of Agriculture.
“Somebody is playing with the market and an immediate intervention to curb the downtrend in sugar prices is very much needed,” said Manuel Lamata, president of the United Sugar Producers Federation (UNIFED).
“We urge the Department of Agriculture (DA) and the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) to intervene as soon as possible and to unmask the culprits who are playing us,” Lamata said.
He suspects “artificial pricing is being caused by traders who want to profit big at the expense of sugar farmers, and they should be exposed.”
Mill prices averaged at P2,500 per bag of sugar last Thursday, at a time when farmers are hoping that prices will be at P2,800 per bag of sugar to make a little profit, Lamata said.
The Sugar Council, composed of the National Federation of Sugarcane Planters (NFSP), Confederation of Sugarcane Producers (CONFED), and Panay Federation of Sugarcane Farmers (PANAYFED), and National Congress of Unions in the Sugar Industry of the Philippines (NACUSIP) earlier asked SRA for an explanation why sugar prices have been on a downward trend.
Since the start of the milling season, Lamata said prices have been erratically dipping and increasing, contrary to the supply and demand figures, which raised suspicions that somebody is profiting from recent events.
“We need the DA and SRA’s intervention to prop-up sugar prices at a comfortable level to prevent further losses especially now when there is also the issue of sugar purity that has gone down due to the long drought,” he added.
If the government will come in and hopefully start buying our sugar, we will only sell directly to the government and they can sell directly to the people, eliminating these traders until prices stabilize, Lamata further said.
We fear that this continued downtrend will have a severe impact on our small farmers which comprise more than 80 percent of the industry producers, who are looking forward to a better holiday season especially with the increase in production inputs due to the long drought, he added.*
