The Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) is backing the call of the local food manufacturers and exporters to allow a business sector representation on the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) board to ensure that the voice of the MSMEs is heard and considered.
At the PCCI Agriculture Committee Meeting, the members composed of the agribusiness industry leaders were in agreement in proposing to the SRA, which is chaired by the President as concurrent head of the Department of Agriculture (DA), to designate a representative from the Philippine Food Exporters (Philfoodex) to participate in the SRA Board consultative meeting, a press release from the group said Tuesday, September 20.
Paul Cuyegkeng, chairman of the PCCI Agriculture Committee, said that the proposal is essential to strike a balance between the needs of farmers, millers, and food manufacturers, which are composed largely of MSMEs.
“We believe that all sectors must be heard. Our local food processors and manufacturers, which are mostly MSMEs have long been burdened with the high cost of refined sugar and sadly, they are not able to compete with our counterparts in ASEAN, whose sugary-made products are sold way cheaper than ours,” Cuyegkeng said.
The committee said that government should engage the private sector to determine the requirements of MSMEs and consider them in the import request in order to continue operations.
The group said that government should also look into modernizing the milling industry to increase production and provide incentives to attract investments in the agriculture-related manufacturing sector.
Aside from industry representation to the SRA board, the PCCI, Philfoodex and Philexport, over the last five years, have been requesting SRA to allocate 10,000 bags or 500 metric tons of refined sugar solely for export use of local food manufacturers and processors so they can compete with sugary-made products from ASEAN, the press release said.
“We again appeal to SRA for a (refined) sugar allocation which is only .3 percent of the 150,000 metric tons approved for importation this season,” Ruben See, Philfoodex president said, adding that requests have been sent to SRA and DA, but no action has been taken since.
The committee also proposed that importation should be done through the Philippine International Trading Corporation (PITC) to ensure monitoring and accounting for the release of imported sugar.*PR