NEGROS Occidental Governor Alfredo Marañon Jr. said the sugar industry is hounded with various problems that needed to be solved through a concerted effort.
“We need to mechanize. We need to repair damaged roads. We need to minimize costs because there are still situations when sugarcane from Kabankalan are delivered to Sagay which is very costly to sugar planters,” he pointed out.
Marañon said this is the reason why the Provincial Government with Negros Occidental Investment and Promotion Center will spearhead sugar summit Thursday at Sugarland Hotel in Bacolod City.
“We will discuss how to solve the problems of the sugar industry which cannot be done by us alone. No one can solve it, we have to put our minds together to solve the problems,” the governor added.
Milling in some sugar mills has started this week as several sugar planters asked for the early start of milling because their sugarcane were not harvested in the last milling season.
Prices of sugar have also gone down since the last milling season because of the entry of high fructose corn syrup.
The summit is themed “Sugar and More: Forging a Strategic Negros Economic Development Agenda.”