The United Sugar Producers Federation of the Philippines (UNIFED) is appealing to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to stop the move to import 64,050 metric tons of sugar while the milling season is at its peak.
UNIFED President Manuel Lamata stressed that they are not against importation per se “but to do it now will be disastrous to our local sugar farmers.”
Agriculture Senior Undersecretary Domingo Panganiban issued a memorandum on Tuesday, December 20, directing Jocelyn Salvador, OIC executive director of the Minimum Access Volume (MAV) Secretariat, to immediately convene the MAV Advisory Council and expedite the importation of 64,050 metric tons of refined sugar.
Based on the latest Summary Inflation Report Consumer Price Index (2018-100) released on December 6, the annual inflation increment for sugars, confectionery, and desserts has reached 38.0 percent. Panganiban said.
Concerned with this very high inflation rate, the president has ordered the Department of Agriculture to take action to stabilize sugar prices, Panganiban said.
Lamata said “we are at the peak of harvest and we have abundant stocks of raw and refined sugar, as such we see no need to import sugar at this time.”
“We are appealing to President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to halt this importation of refined sugar through the minimum access volume mechanism until the results of a post-assessment of sugar stocks after the end of the milling season can be conducted,” Lamata added.
Lamata said that in the past three weeks, “millgate prices of sugar have gone down and if this further goes down with the entry of imported sugar, the sugar farmers will be facing a double whammy.”*