The Philippines plans the purchase of at least 200,000 metric tons (MT) of refined sugar from overseas suppliers in September as part of the government’s price stability program.
In briefing journalists late on Wednesday, Agriculture Secretary Francisco Tiu Laurel Jr. said the purchase will ensure its price will not kick up as the domestic stock begins to deplete from September to October this year.
“By September we should have an arrival of at least 200,000 MT of refined sugar for the gap before harvest and refining,” Secretary Tiu Laurel said. A seasoned fishing executive prior to accepting the job as top agriculturist, Secretary Tiu Laurel said he will coordinate with the Sugar Regulatory Administration around 10 or 11 July to ensure a smooth execution of the plan.
There are also discussions with bottling companies who import the commodity on an industrial scale and ensure raw sugar does not form part of the planned imports.
Pablo Azcona, SRA administrator, separately said the sugar import program referred to by Secretary Tiu Laurel is part Sugar Order 2 that pre-qualified importers for future purchases conditioned on the purchase of sugar from local farmers.
“SO2 increased the farmer price to a stable P2,700 to P2,800 per bag of raw sugar, which also stabilized retail refined prices at P73 to P100 per kilo. This program pre-qualified an import volume of almost 200,000 MT of refined sugar and was planned in January and formally signed 8 March 2024,” Azcona said.
He said the SRA has pre-qualified and assigned each one an allocation based on their actual support for local farmers.
“As we said previously, we will activate an import plan should the trigger stock level be reached to ensure a stable supply and stable price for our retail and industrial consumers, as well as to ensure that our farmers will not be affected. We also have to bear in mind that the five million farmers, farm workers, their families and people dependent on the sugarcane industry are also 100 percent retail consumers,” Azcona said.
In a separate statement, the United Sugar Producers Federation of the Philippines (UNIFED) does not object to the planned importation of 200,000 MT of refined sugar.
“This will fill in the shortage before the harvest season starts in September. Harvests this coming crop year will be delayed due to El Niño. When we were consulted on this matter, we approved the proposal,” said UNIFED president Manuel Lamata.
Department of Agriculture monitoring of public markets in the National Capital Region show the retail price of sugar ranging from P74 to P92 a kilo of refined sugar, P64 to P90 a kilo of washed sugar and from P62 to P90 a kilo of brown sugar.
