Senator Imee Marcos made a promise during the Panaad sa Negros Festival opening rites to push for a millgate sugar price of P3,000 per Lkg for crop year 2024 to 2025.
Marcos, in her speech at the Panaad Stadium in Bacolod City on Monday, April 15, said since the festival is about making a promise, her promise to Negrenses is to help ensure that raw sugar prices hit P3,000 per Lkg like the industry used to have in 2022.
“This is just a promise, a dream… but it is our oath to help in ensuring that sugar should come to a decent price,” she said during a press conference after the opening program.
She said that in 2022 it was at P3,200/Lkg but the price has continuously declined.
“It is now about P2,700 to P2,800 but we cannot feel the decrease of prices in the market, the farmers are suffering because of this yet the consumers are not benefitting from the fallen price,” she said.
She also called the Sugar Regulatory Administration to help in increasing the price of raw sugar, especially now that they are requesting to bring back their P2-billion budget granted under the Sugar Industry Development Act.
Marcos explained that in the past the SRA failed to spend the entire P2 billion, that is why it was slashed to P500 million.
“They are requesting for a P2B budget, even P5B but they need to show us first that the sugar prices have improved,” she said.
She also said that SRA should also propagate drought resistant and fast-propagating sugarcane varieties like what other countries are doing.*