The Confederation of Sugar Producers Associations (CONFED) on Wednesday, August 5, urged sugarcane industry stakeholders— especially farmers, laborers, and mill workers— to actively demand for real and lasting solutions to the industry’s worsening problems, aside from controlling the Red-striped soft scale insect (RSSI) infestation.
In issuing the call, CONFED National President Aurelio Gerardo J. Valderrama Jr. also revealed that a Joint Motion to Dismiss the complaint had been signed by all concerned parties involved in his highly-publicized labor case, after the completion of sober due process to resolve the workers’ complaint.
“The resolution of that case was a brief distraction,” Valderrama said in a press release.
The CONFED President stressed the need to just get to work and help solve the problems of the industry.
CONFED called on the Department of Agriculture (DA) and the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) for transparent and proactive governance through stakeholders’ consultations, to work on measures to address major critical threats such as: competition from imports and sugar substitutes, high production costs, low millgate prices, widespread Red-striped soft scale insect (RSSI) infestations, the looming Super El Niño forecasted in the last quarter of this year, and the loss of confidence among affected producers in the future of sugarcane farming.
Based on the latest Supply and Demand report from the SRA that is available to us, estimated losses in the sugar industry due to this crisis is over P15 billion, the press release said.
Given the staggering losses already suffered and the prospects of further losses, the sugar industry’s lingering crisis will have far-reaching consequences. Because these systemic issues threaten the vast majority—not just individual farmers or one sector—CONFED challenges the industry to speak out and demand effective solutions – aside from temporary palliatives – from the DA and SRA, working in concert with industry stakeholders, it said.
If the sugar industry collapses, we will face not just a handful of workers claiming they were underpaid, but tens of thousands of workers clamoring for work no longer available. Failure to stop the industry’s decline, CONFED warns, could trigger a rise in security concerns and the need for massive social safety nets, the press release added.*
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