Thursday, January 08, 2009 Scrapping of world market sugar allocation sought
NATIONAL Federation of Sugar Planters (NFSP) president Enrique Rojas has asked the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) to scrap the allocation for a 4.5 percent ‘World Market’ sugar which is now classified as ‘DX’ sugar.
In his letter to SRA Administrator Rafael Coscolluela dated January 6, 2009, Rojas said “we are now in the middle of the milling season and we are still being burdened by low sugar prices, both in the domestic and world market.”
“We have to move now for the scrapping of the ‘DX’ allocation so that producers, particularly the small planters, can also avail of a more reasonable price for their sugar for the rest of what is projected to be a shorter crop year,” he said.
Rojas noted that as per media reports, “SRA expects a drop in national sugar production by as much as or even higher than 20 percent compared to last year. This alarming decline in production compels us to reiterate our previous request last November 12/08 to stop the allocation for a 4.5 percent ‘DX’ sugar.”
“If we continue with the present percentage allocation, we will be jeopardizing the welfare of our sugar producers who continue to suffer from low sugar prices. Moreover, we might be forced to import sugar for our domestic consumption, thereby effectively compromising our national food security. Definitely, this scenario will not have a positive impact on the SRA,” he added.
Based on SRA’s production figures, there has been a steady decline in raw sugar production for three consecutive weeks now starting from week ending December 7/08.
“While the production for the stated period is still higher compared to the same period last crop year, the difference in production is slowly declining. It is highly possible that the declining production will eventually result to a shortfall this January compared to production for the same period in January ’08,” Rojas said.
