The Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) is seeking the restoration of the P2 billion annual Sugar Industry Development Act (SIDA) fund which had been halved to only P1 billion this year and next.
This developed as the Department of Agriculture (DA) formally received 4,000 metric tons (MT) of refined sugar from the Department of Finance through the Bureau of Customs which will be sold at various Kadiwa outlets and stalls for a fixed price of P70 per kilogram.
Pablo Azcona, SRA acting administrator, told reporters that Budget and Management Secretary Amena Pangandaman approved the SIDA budget this year and next year of only P1 billion.
The SIDA fund is a P2 billion fund designed to keep the sugar industry competitive by setting aside P2 billion each year starting 2016. But the fund has not been deployed in full as mandated, forcing the Department of Budget and Management to set aside only P67 million as recently as 2020.
The SIDA mandate requires the SRA to deploy P1 billion a year for infrastructure like farm to market roads, P300 million for lending, P100 million in scholarship grants, P300 million for block farms of agrarian reform beneficiaries and another P300 million in so-called shared facilities programs.
Azcona said the agency has asked the DBM to restore the P2 billion allocation in the 2024 budget as the SIDA endeavors to spend half of that money for infrastructures and the balance in research and development activities, farm mechanization programs, scholarships and socialized lending.
Given that underutilization is penalized by budget cuts, Azcona vowed to deploy the proposed budget in full.
“If we get the P2 billion, we double the amount for block farms and provide more machinery and for research. The general goal is to increase (sugar) yield and productivity and veer away from imports,” Azcona added.
The BOC has donated 4,000 metric tons or 80,000 bags of forfeited Thailand white sugar to the Department of Agriculture seized at the port of Batangas for lack of import documents.
Sugar supply is more than enough to sustain existing demand on the basis of a physical stock of 262,328.30 MT of raw sugar, 448,106.45 MT refined sugar and 148,264.29 MT molasses as of 16 July this year.
Refined sugar retails for P85 up to P110 per kilo, P82 to P90 per kilo for washed sugar and P78 to P90 for brown sugar.
SRA monitoring show the price of raw sugar at P3,000 per 50 kilogram bag.
