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Zubiri joins call to halt importation, sugar prices drop by P240 per bag

Senate Majority Leader Juan Miguel “Migz” Zubiri called on the Department of Agriculture on Monday, February 14, to cease importation of agricultural products during the harvest season for local farmers.

Zubiri, who has roots in Negros Occidental, issued the call after the millgate prices of raw sugar plummeted for two straight weeks by a high of P240 per 50-kilogram bag in anticipation of the impending sugar importation announced by the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA).

Former SRA Board Member Dino Yulo said within days after SRA released its Sugar Order No. 3, allowing for the importation of 200,000 metric tons of sugar, local raw sugar prices dropped by almost 10 percent in most mills.

“First it was rice and corn, then pork, beef, chicken, and fish. Now it’s sugar. If we don’t put a stop to this ill-timed importation program, our local sugar prices will be in freefall for the coming weeks,” Zubiri warned.

“We cannot allow this to happen. Our sugar farmers will be suffering next sugar crop year, with high production costs and lower productivity”, he said.

In Negros Occidental millgate prices of several sugar mills have dropped significantly over two bidding weeks: Victorias Milling Co. dropped by P240 for every 50-kilogram bag of raw sugar, SONEDCO by P213, Hawaiian Philippines and First Farmers by P136, and Central Azucarera de La Carlota by P188, Zubiri said.

In the neighboring island of Iloilo, URC Passi dropped by P223 and millers in Bukidnon by about P100, he added.

Yulo attributed the huge drop to “the premature announcement” of SRA Administrator Hermenigildo Serafica, adding that “in most cases he knew that this will have an immediate effect on sugar pricing.”

A drop by as much as P10 percent has a huge impact on the livelihood of small sugar farmers who comprises more than 80 percent of the sugar producers, Yulo said.

“These small farmers are barely surviving due to the high cost of farm inputs, particularly fertilizers and fuel that has been increasing steadily each week and will now suffer more because of this drop in sugar prices,” he said.

Associacion de Agricultores de la Carlota y Pontevedra Inc. (AALCPI), the biggest independent sugar group in the country with over 10,000 planter-members, also slammed the results of the sugar bidding during the weekend that is said was artificially driven down by the announcement of SO3.

AALCPI President Roberto Cuenca said the price drop came amid their call for SRA to act on their appeal for a price freeze on farm inputs. AALCPI has joined other sugar federations in seeking the recall of SO3.

The DA and the SRA said they greenlighted a sugar importation program through Sugar Order No. 3 to stabilize prices and supply deficits in the wake of Typhoon Odette.

But Zubiri pointed out that sugar farmers have been asking for help in dealing with skyrocketing fertilizer and diesel prices since last year, and they have not heard of any interventions from the DA and the SRA.

Urea now sells for around P2,400 from just P800 eighteen months ago, and diesel prices have doubled from P27 over the same timeframe, he said.

“Now that sugar prices are up because of rising farm input costs, the DA and SRA are coming out with an importation program to stabilize prices. It is ironic that importation is their answer to our farmers’ pleas to mitigate skyrocketing fertilizer prices. This will only sink our farmers toward in more hardships and saddle them with more debts,” Zubiri said.

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the vital importance of the agricultural sector, he said, because “they have provided us food amid our strictest lockdowns”.

“Yet strangely, the DA continues with its pro-import policies, to the detriment of our own farmers”, Zubiri added.

Zubiri said he will ask the chairperson of the Senate Committee on Agriculture to conduct a hearing on the matter, as the DA officials committed during the last budget deliberations and in open session that they would not import sugar during the harvest and milling season.

“We should make it a policy that there be no importation program while harvest season is ongoing. That goes for sugar and all agricultural products. Food security should be our battle cry, not import dependency”, the senator stressed.*

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