BUSINESS chambers in the Visayas are gathering forces to support the sugar industry and its farmer-stakeholders amid the threat of liberalization.
Frank Carbon, chief executive officer of Metro Bacolod Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MBCCI), said the local business sector will intervene in order to delay, if not stop, the sugar import deregulation plan.
Carbon said sugar planters in the country need to recover first before the measure will be implemented.
"It is the business chamber in the oriental side who will make the resolution on that," he said, adding that those in Negros Occidental and Panay will work on the call to restore the P2-billion Sugar Industry Development Act (Sida) fund.
Sugar industry stakeholders need to strategize on how to utilize the fund, which has been cut by the government due to underutilization.
The support of Negros and Panay business chambers to sugar industry stakeholders will result in louder voices, the business leader said.
Carbon said they hope to pass these resolutions supporting the sugar industry during the upcoming Visayas Area Business Conference in Tacloban City, Leyte on August 22 to 23.
Carbon said the local business chambers are also upbeat to bring it to this year's Philippine Business Conference in Manila in October.
"We hope that the national business chambers will adopt our move, but we have yet to hurdle the Visayas area which is hosts to many sugar mills," he added.
The MBCCI recognized the huge role of the sugar industry in the province's agriculture sector.
Its official said more than half of the local agriculture landscape is still sugar. It's still the backbone of the entire agriculture industry.
"Without sugar, imagine how big are the losses in terms of money and employment Negros can incur," he stressed.