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Friday, March 29, 2024

Bacolod: SRA readies 2 Sugar Orders

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Bacolod City – The Sugar Regulatory Administration is expecting to release Sugar Order Number 1 that recommends an all B sugar, or domestic sugar allocation, for this crop year this week, followed by SO#2 that calls for the importation of 150,000MT of refined sugar a week after, disclosed SRA acting administrator David John Thaddeus Alba recently.

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There will be no allocation for United States quota this time, Alba said, stressing that the quota will be met again, as soon as they stabilize the sugar needs of the country.

Five percent of the sugar production in the country is being allocated for the US quota, Alba said.

But because of the critical situation of the sugar industry right now, Alba, who spoke at the 68th Philsutech annual convention held at the SMX Convention Center in Bacolod City, said they cannot comply with the US quota.

SO1 recommends an all B sugar allocation for this crop year, pending thorough consultation with all stakeholders, after which, all inputs will be reverted back to the Palace for approval of President Ferdinand Macros Jr. Alba said as he hopes the order will be released next week.

We cannot also do away with the talk of importation as the industry cannot meet the market demand, as of yet. Upon the recommendation made during the sugar stakeholders meeting with the President, we will work on the importation order of 150,000 metric tons of purely refined sugar as a balancing act to stabilize market prices, and this is what is enshrined in SO2, the SRA acting chief said.

He stressed that this will go through further deliberations for them to draw up the mechanics equitable to all players, before submitting the same to Malacañang for its approval. Our target is to have the SO2 released by mid-September so its arrival will not interfere with the resumption of operations by our sugar refineries that normally starts mid-November, Alba said.

The 150,000MT of imported refined sugar is expected to arrive by mid-November, he added.

The country’s need for sugar is pegged at 2.5 million metric tons, which Alba said, was a target that was achieved and even surpassed during crop year 2016-2017.

He blamed the shortfall of targeted sugar production in the past few years on various factors, including climate change, high inputs prices and COVID-19 pandemic that drove up production costs.

But your SRA Board believes that 2.5 million metric tons is achievable, if we focus on farm productivity and ensure the efficiency of our mills for higher recovery. There are also doable remedies such as implementing a good drainage plan in your farms, and maximizing our resources to invest in research and development, technology and mechanization, Alba said.

This is also why we will work on ensuring that we get the full funding allotted for the implementation of the Sugar Industry Development Act (SIDA) so we can efficiently utilize it to meet the industry’s needs.

This year, the SIDA funding was further cut down to a fourth of its original P2B allocation to only P500 million, as SRA has been accused of under-utilizing the fund.

But with proper programming and with the support of President Marcos and our allies in both Houses of Congress, we will ask help to circumvent red tape and go full blast in utilizing the SIDA Fund by next year to make us globally competitive, he said. (Gilbert Bayoran via The Visayan Daily Star (TVDS), photo courtesy of TVDS)

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