SRA offers traders import opportunities in exchange for local sugar purchases

The Sugar Regulatory Administration released a new order on Friday that offers traders import opportunities in exchange for voluntary purchases of up to 300,000 metric tons of local raw sugar.

The SRA said the program has the support of registered sugar traders.

“[T]he SRA deems it necessary to adopt additional, responsive, and pre-emptive measures through timely government intervention by way of voluntary limited time purchase of locally produced sugar at a premium to be temporarily reclassified to 'C' Reserved Sugar for a specified period of time in order to maintain a balanced supply and demand of sugar for domestic consumption while ensuring reasonable and stable prices,” the order read.

''Eligible participants who purchased locally produced raw sugar...shall be given priority in future programs for sugar importation on the basis of the volume of raw sugar purchased under this Sugar Order, at a ratio of 1:5:1 (locally produced raw sugar purchased: imported sugar),'' it said.

Farmers, sugar millers, and others licensed to trade sugar were encouraged to avail of the program.

“If they buy two bags of sugar, they are allowed to import one. Parang may kapalit, (you expect something in return),” said United Sugar Producers Federation of the Philippines (UNIFED) president Manuel Lamata in a report by Bernadette Reyes on ''24 Oras Weekend'' on Saturday.

Earlier, UNIFED said that the farmgate price of sugar saw a downward trend.

“The idea behind that is to prop up the mill gate prices, which recently went down from 3000-high to 2400. Lugi na yung mga farmers (The farmers lose profit) and that was because the traders were manipulating the prices,” Lamata said.

The Department of Agriculture's most recent price monitoring of sugar prices shows that refined white sugar costs between P72 and P100 per kilogram, while washed sugar sells for P68 to P86 and brown sugar costs between P59 and P90 per kilogram. — Jiselle Anne Casucian/VBL, GMA Integrated News