SUGAR leaders in Negros Occidental appealed to President Rodrigo Duterte to stop the proposed sugar liberalization, saying it will kill the sugar industry.
Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) Board Member Emilio Yulo III, in a press conference Thursday, January 24, said they have started lobbying to the national leaders to help the sugar industry.
He said the sugar leaders in Negros Occidental will meet with Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol on Wednesday, January 30, hoping to get his support.
As a member of the SRA board representing the sugar producers, Yulo said they are opposing the plan of Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno to deregulate or liberalize the sugar industry.
“We are very much familiar especially from the province of Negros Occidental the lifeblood of which is sugar. Any unabated open importation would result in the death of the sugar industry,” he said.
He said Piñol was in Germany last week because of the agriculture summit.
"So probably, we will hear from Piñol next week. We are confident of the support and we have heard Secretary Piñol fight for the rights of the small farmers as well as the other agriculture sector. So we hope that we get his support,” he said.
“Industry users of sugar are definitely lobbying to our policymakers and that's the problem of the industry because we are about five million stakeholders but if you take a look at the previous news releases, like the Philippine Food Exporters, they are coming in strong request for the open importation and they kept on harping their 40,000 employees that will be affected if they won't be allowed to but what about the five million stakeholders in the sugar industry? So I think the government should hear out the sugar industry before making any serious policy statement,” Yulo said.
“We know as experience would show particularly in the '80s when sugar prices went down to precarious level would affect the socio-political situation in the province,” Yulo added.
Plan of action
Yulo said it is incumbent upon the sugar stakeholders right now to have a longer-term plan.
"We cannot be approaching this on a task force type of industry rather, we should take a long term both on the efficiency of the sugar producers at the same time do some action to be competitive. However, now is not the time to liberalize," he said.
"I think the agriculture sector right now is under attack. Look at the chicken, with the open importation of chicken just before Christmas, however, the effect was not the way they wanted. The price of chicken remained at high prices during the holiday season but farm gate prices of chicken went down. There's now the problem of rice. There's that rice tariffication, but on infancy state," he added.
Like in the sugar industry, the aim is to be competitive but then, if you pump in billions of pesos, it will take a number of years before the system gets in place, Yulo said.
“That's the problem with some of our policymakers, making decisions on the basis of problems they are currently facing,” he said.
He also said that on Thursday, they already started lobbying because the impact will be first felt by the small planters, small farmers, and the agrarian reform beneficiaries.
“The problem is the government is asking us to be efficient. But you know sugar is a crop and the problem is because the government is breaking uplands. So that's the irony if we look at the situation that we are in right now,” he said.
Sugar production
Right now, they are in the process of collating the production figures.
“But the open deregulation program does not anymore dwell whether we produce a certain amount of sugar per year because the key is to allow users, especially big business, to bring in sugar anytime they need a certain volume,” Yulo said.
On the short-term solution, all of these will done through the lobby effort.
“We have to make known our position to our policymakers particularly those who are Concerned of the plight of the sugar industry because we have to make our voices heard,” Yulo said, adding “we are in the province so maybe, we should take this fight to another domain, to Metro Manila where the policymakers are.”
He added that when Diokno revealed his plan for liberalization, the millgate price of sugar immediately dropped last week at the average of P100 per bag.
"They do not understand the whole supply chain of the sugar industry. Here, we are selling brown sugar at P1,470 per bag and maybe it is safe to presume that 98 percent of our sugar producers sell their sugar quedan weekly,” he said.
He lamented, “their concern in Manila is that refined sugar is sold at P62 per kilo or P3,000 per bag. So the question is who’s killing the price, definitely, it's not the producers. So why blame us?”
He said that since December 4, 2018, he was already calling the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) since this is essentially a problem of the consumers.
“Outside the domain of the sugar industry, our mandate under Executive Order 18 is to regulate supply and demand but prices are under the exclusive jurisdiction of DTI especially there is a bunch of profiteering,” he added.
On the proposal for a direct selling from millgate to retail, Yulo said there were already proposals but then the volume is not big. “This is a possible scenario. There are sugar centrals selling their refined sugar at P2,100 in Metro Manila.”
On the resolution of the Provincial Board (PB) opposing the plan of the government to liberalize the sugar industry, Yulo said he is thanking the Provincial Board for being receptive to the situation.
"Of course, everybody in the PB or any local government unit knows the implication of the liberalization which is low prices. Low prices, we can equate that to peace and order problem and it becomes now a problem of the LGUs,” he said.