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SRA suspends implementation of Sugar Order 6 pending further discussion


SRA Sugar Regulatory Administration Sugar Order 6 sugar

The Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) has announced the suspension of Sugar Order 6 (SO), which mandates additional requirements for imports of sugar alternatives and other sugar-based products, following concerns raised by industry representatives.

According to SRA chief Pablo Azcona, the suspension of the implementation was decided during the meeting of the SRA Board last Thursday, January 23, in response to concerns raised by stakeholders in the sugar industry.

“We have received letters and are actively reaching out to set up meetings with the concerned groups,” Azcona said, noting that the Department of Agriculture (DA) has been tasked to facilitate further discussions with stakeholders.

This comes after major industry groups have called on the SRA to reconsider SO 6, urging the government to address the broader implications of the SO on importers and concessionaires.

Under SO 6, the SRA ordered the implementation of import clearance fees of sugar alternatives and sugar-based items such as specially sugar, flavored syrup, lactose, glucose, maltose, maple syrup, honey, and caramel.

It also mandated a clearance for release fee of P3.00 per 50-kilogram bag or P60.00 per metric ton, with the exception of fructose.

The SRA has maintained the order is for monitoring purposes, and to generate an accurate database on the entry of sugar-based products, to improve the agency’s supply and demand planning which will benefit farmers and consumers.

The Federation of Philippine Industries Inc. (FPI), in a letter to Azcona dated January 27, said that if the SRA purpose is to merely gather data, the agency can ask the Bureau of Customs (BOC) for the information, given its data computerization efforts.

The FPI also said the order will “merely result in bureaucratic inefficiencies,” hike the cost of doing business, increase selling prices of beverage and confectionery products, and “ultimately adversely affect the Filipino consumer.”

“We thus urge the SRA to set a dialogue or meeting with the beverage, food, and confectionary industry so that their position can really be heard, studied, and evaluated by the government,” FPI chairperson Jesus Lim Arranza said in the letter.

For his part, Azcona described such fears as “unfounded,” as he said the SRA processes over a thousand sugar-related import clearances each year, with typical processing times averaging two to three working days.

“We have been issuing import clearances for fructose under the same 1702 code since 2017, and there have been no reports of delays or disruptions to business operations,” he said.

“Again, their fears are unfounded as these are all speculative at the moment, since the order has not been implemented yet, and we welcome the opportunity to sit with them and find solutions to their concerns,” he added.

The SRA in December backed moves to investigate the alleged manipulation of traders in sugar prices, after prices of brown sugar were recorded at P65 to P85 per kilogram and white sugar at P90 per kilo, which sugar farmers ended up with a loss as farmgate prices dropped. — RSJ, GMA Integrated News

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