DAVAO Representative Karlo Nograles assured the sugar farmers that he will look into the problems besetting the sugar industry.
Nograles, in an interview over DyRL’s “Mercado Publiko,” said that the sugar industry must be protected, as well as the local farmers, adding that he will look into the problem if it needs a congressional inquiry.
Nograles’s father, former House Speaker Prospero Nograles, hailed from Pontevedra, Negros Occidental.
The lawmaker made a statement after Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol said he recently received complaints from Coca-Cola that farmers are not complying with the agreement to sell sugar to the beverage giant.
The local farmers reportedly failed to supply the committed volume amid the expected lower output for the crop year, the Department of Agriculture (DA) secretary said.
When Coke was importing high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), sugar stakeholders complained and asked Coke to buy from them and the beverage giant agreed and even abandoned HFCS altogether. But now, farmers do not want to supply what Coke needs.
Sugar prices in the mill gate have started to improve as it jumped 35 percent to P1,671 per 50-kg bag as of May 6, from P1,241 per 50-kg bag in 2017.
Meanwhile, some sugar farmers are complaining about the decision of the Sugar Regulatory Administration in giving the traders voluntary option not to convert their sugar.
This is relative to the president's directive to convert “D,” or world market, to “B” sugar, or domestic, to cover the domestic sugar shortage based on the latest sugar order.
Some sugar farmers said that the president's order should be mandatory.
Local raw-sugar production has been declining as it reached 1.83 million metric tons as of May 6, which is 11 percent lower than the 2.16 million metric tons recorded in the same period in 2017.