Two groups are calling for direct government buying of surplus sugar stocks to ease the congestion in the domestic market and arrest the downward spiral of millgate sugar and molasses prices.
National Federation of Sugarcane Planters (NFSP) president Enrique D. Rojas and Panay Federation of Sugarcane Farmers (PanayFed) president Danilo A. Abelita issued the call for immediate intervention by the national government in a joint statement on Sunday, Dec. 14.
They also called for the provision by government financial institutions of easily accessible quedan financing for sugar farmers.
“The present sad plight of the sugar industry was caused by a confluence of events, most notably erroneous importation policies and worsened by natural calamities,” they said.
“All industry stakeholders should come together and cohesively petition the government to immediately allocate resources for direct sugar buying and quedan financing,” they added.
Sugar prices dropped to as low as P2,103.00 per 50-kilo bag in some mills in Negros Oriental and Panay, while the highest bid was P2,322.22 per bag in Hawaiian-Philippine Company in last weeks’ sugar bidding.
The crop year started with prices of P2,250 to P2,350 per bag, which is a far cry from the P2,800 per bag during the first couple of weeks in Crop Year 2024-2025, Rojas and Abelita said.
“Based on SRA records, the average price for October was P2,350.20 per bag, while that for November was P2,396.04 per bag. The first two weeks of December saw prices as low as P2,103.00, which is the lowest for several crop years”, they said.
They also pointed out that some mills declared a failure of bidding because there were either no takers or the bid price was unacceptable to sugar farmers because the bid price was too low, Rojas and Abelita said.
“This crop year’s prices are below production cost of majority of sugar farmers, mostly agrarian reform beneficiaries cultivating farms of less than two hectares. Sugar proceeds are their only source of income,” they said in their joint statement.
“The prevailing low price is literally slowly killing them by depriving them of income. It has reached a point where some marginal farmers are seriously considering giving up sugar farming,” they said.
If sugar farming becomes unprofitable for these small farmers, their only recourse is to diversify to another crop or enterprise, Rojas and Abelita said.
However, their lack of technical know-how and access to financing makes diversification a daunting endeavor. With no safety nets for small farmers and their families, they will be reduced to poverty and hopelessness, which is fertile breeding ground for social unrest, they added.
“As an industry, we need to get our acts together to get out of this hole we are in. We should petition government for immediate action, so that we can avert the impending economic catastrophe and social unrest in the sugar farms of Negros, Panay and other sugar-producing areas, if this uncontrollable decline in sugar and molasses prices continue,” they stressed.*