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UNIFED opposes direct sugar importation by beverage firms

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• GILBERT P. BAYORAN

The United Sugar Producers Federation of the Philippines (UNIFED) strongly opposed the request of beverage companies to directly import premium refined sugar for their needs.

In a statement, UNIFED President Manual Lamata urged President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. to deny the request of beverage companies, stressing that they should be buying local sugar “because we buy their local products as well.”

Lamata said he received information of a request of Coca Cola Beverages Philippines, Inc., Pepsi-Cola Products Philippines, Inc., ARC Refreshments Corporation, Nestle Philippines Inc., Alaska Milk Corporation, and Monde Nissin Corporation, to meet with the president, to allow industrial users to “directly import premium refined sugar.”

In a letter dated March 22, addressed to President Marcos in his capacity as head of the Department of Agriculture, the beverage companies complained of the sugar supply, high prices, and the alleged “outright refusal” of traders to “provide price quotes to industrial buyers.”

In the letter, they urged the president to “consider available options that will allow industrials to directly import premium refined sugar to address the shortage and stabilize prices of domestic sugar,” and in order to “prevent future supply crises, we propose that importation be used to create a buffer stock for at least one quarter,” and “prices for imports for sale in the Philippines should be pegged closer to world market price.”

Describing it as a “sheer greed,” Lamata said allowing them to import directly “will affect the more than 5 million stakeholders of the sugar industry who are ironically their consumers as well.”

In their letter, the companies claim they comprise over 90 percent of industrial users and have concerns to present to the president including sugar scarcity, quality and sugar pricing in the country that allegedly threatens their business operations and the livelihoods of tens of thousands of workers.

Lamata said “these companies have earned billions of revenues from us Filipinos, they can surely protect their workers and their interests for decades to come. However, allowing them to directly import now will not just kill the sugar industry but kill the millions who are dependent on this industry just so they can further enrich themselves at our expense.”

Lamata said an importation program has been signed by the president already “so what scarcity of supply are they still talking about? This is nothing but pure greed from multinationals who continue to prey on us Filipino consumers, he added.

While he admitted that there is indeed a need to import, “the national government has already addressed this to keep a balance between killing the sugar industry outright and providing for these companies’ needs.”

“This is simply a case of give them your hand, they now demand for the whole arm.” Lamata added this is “not surprising as these companies have always been known for their greed and we have to stand up against them,” as he urged stakeholders of the industry to “unite now.”*

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