Acting Administrator David Alba of the Sugar Regulatory Administration at the 68th Philippine Sugar Technologists Association Inc. national convention at the SMX Convention Center in Bacolod City, Thursday, August 25.*
Acting Administrator David Alba of the Sugar Regulatory Administration stressed the need to prepare against threats to the sugar industry, including possible moves to resurrect the call for liberalization.
“While we do not want to take cognizant of the rumor mill, there have been whispers to resurrect the issue of liberalization and that is something we have to prepare against,” Alba said in his speech at the 68th Philippine Sugar Technologists Association Inc. national convention at the SMX Convention Center in Bacolod City, Thursday, August 25.
He said while the sugar industry has big allies in President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and in both Houses of Congress, they should not be complacent.
“I am extending the invitation to all of you to work with us, for it is when we are together, when we forego our personal interests and serve the industry collectively, that we can be triumphant in the end,” he said.
Alba said the SRA Board, the Department of Agriculture and the president’s will also work hand in hand to ensure that threats to the industry are prevented.
“I am confident that we can deliver because we have no less than the president himself who has assured us that he has our backs,” he said.
Alba reiterated that the president has ordered them to see to an increase in sugar production.
“We have a hard-working president who understands the value of agriculture, which is why he took on the task of overseeing the entire department and has manifested that he would want to take an active role in so far as our sugar industry is concerned,” he said.
Alba pointed out that Malacañang has also been acting on the sugar industry’s woes.
Six personnel from the Bureau of Customs were relieved from their posts over alleged sugar smuggling in Subic, and another warehouse was raided in Cagayan where over 440,000 sacks of sugar were recovered over allegations of hoarding, Alba said.
Alba said they hope to release Sugar Order No. 1 next week that will allocate all of the country’s sugar for crop year 2022-2023 as “B” for the domestic market.
“We are confident that our commitment to enforce the US quota will be met again as soon as we have stabilized our nation’s needs”, he said.
Alba, in an interview, said they will write the United States Department of Agriculture to explain that because of the critical state of the sugar industry the Philippines cannot fill its share of the US sugar quota for now.
He reiterated in his speech that the Philippines will have to import 150,000 metric tons of purely refined sugar as a balancing act to stabilize market prices.
This will go through further deliberation so we can draw up the mechanics equitable to all players, before submitting it to Malacañang for its approval, he said
Alba also assured that the president has emphasized that importation should be our last priority.
“As much as possible, he does not want to import. And we can address this if we ingrain in our minds productivity and efficiency,” Alba said.
“The country’s need is pegged at 2.5 million metric tons and we have done that in crop year 2016-2017 when we actually overshot that target. We have been falling short in the past few years because of various factors, some of which are beyond our control such as climate change, high inputs prices and of course the pandemic that drove up our production costs,” he said.
But the SRA Board believes that 2.5 million metric tons is achievable if they focus on farm productivity and ensure the efficiency of our mills for higher recovery, he said.
“This is why we will work on ensuring that we get the full funding allotted for the implementation of the Sugar Industry Development Act so we can efficiently utilize it to meet the industry’s needs,“ he said.
“This year, the SIDA funding was further cut down to a fourth from its original P2B allocation at only P500 million. We have been accused of under-utilizing the SIDA fund. But with proper programming and with the support of President Marcos and our allies in both Houses of Congress, we will ask help to circumvent the red tape and go full blast in utilizing the SIDA Fund by next year to make us globally competitive,” he added.*