The devastation caused by Typhoon Paeng has prompted the United Sugar Producers Federation (UNIFED) to seek the intervention of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to raise the suggested retail price (SRP) of sugar from the current P70 per kilo to P85-90 at least.
UNIFED President Manuel Lamata said “our sugar farmers need help to recover from the damage caused by the recent typhoon that has inundated hundreds of sugar farms from north to south of Negros and the rest of the Visayas.”
Lamata is also asking if millgate prices can be increased by at least P60 to stabilize the price at P3,000/LKg. Currently, the millgate price is at about P2,900 per LKg, he said.
Before the typhoon, Lamata said millgate prices were already going down but seeing the damage Paeng wrought, we need the immediate assistance from the president to bring up the retail SRP until our farmers can recover.
While sugar prices have gone down, “fertilizers and fuel prices are still on the rise and compounded with the typhoon’s damage, our sugar farmers will have a hard time surviving this time,” Lamata added.
Lamata said he is confident that the President, as the head of the agriculture department will understand the situation as the typhoon has not only cost us lives but millions, perhaps billions of damage to our agriculture industry.*PR