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Greed, imported sugar eyed as culprits in millgate price drop

“Many farmers were disappointed that sugar tonnage and yield were below their expectations”, Enrique Rojas, NFSP president, said.* Nic Ledesma photo

“Hopefully, for the sake of thousands of small planters and their families, sugar tonnage and millgate sugar prices will substantially improve in the succeeding weeks,” Enrique Rojas, National Federation of Sugarcane Planters president, said Tuesday, September 19.

Millgate sugar prices dropped last week despite the promise of the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) to keep in at P3,000 per 50-kilo (Lkg) bag at the start of the milling season to protect farmers from selling below production cost, amid importation done earlier.

Farmers speculate that the market is still flooded with imported sugar, leaving little demand for domestic sugar, Rojas told DIGICAST NEGROS.

“We call on the SRA to give us updated information on the actual volume of imported sugar available in the market, as well as actual sugar production and yield, at the start of this new milling season,” Rojas said.

He said out of the seven Negros mills that have started their operations, only Hawaiian Philippine Co. in Silay City and First Farmers Holding Corp. in Talisay City in Negros Occidental reached more than P3,000, at an average of P3,040 per Lkg bag.

Millgate prices in the other five mills averaged P2,600 per bag, which is barely break-even for most small planters, Rojas said.

Sugar farmers were expecting that, by delaying the milling until September, sugar production would improve in terms of tonnage per hectare and sugar yield per ton cane, he added.

“Many farmers were disappointed that sugar tonnage and yield were below their expectations, Rojas said.

Farmers also expected that millgate sugar prices would be maintained at more than P3,000 per bag, he added.

Manuel Lamata, United Sugar Producers Federation president, said the drop in sugar prices in some sugar mills is a deliberate move to buy sugar at very low prices so that they can make more money.

“This is nothing new. Greed at its finest. They are traders/ millers retailers” Lamata said.

“Unifed is asking and calling on the president to have them called for a meeting to explain why others kept the prices at P3,032 and they at P2,500,” he said.

Aurelio Gerardo Valderrama Jr., Confederation of Sugar Producers’ Associations (CONFED) president, said they are waiting for this week’s millgate sugar prices to confirm that it’s going down.

The SRA is investigating the drop in sugar millgate prices, SRA Administrator Pablo Azcona said on Monday.

“Definitely none of the farmers want the low price so we will focus our investigation among the mills, traders and importers to see if there is some abnormality in their dealings but rest assured that we will get to the bottom of this”, Azcona said.

“Someone is definitely making a scenario and we will not take this sitting down,” he said.*

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