THE Tatak Kalamay, a movement composed of sugar industry stakeholders, said the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) owes industry stakeholders as well as consumers an explanation for their production estimates for the current crop year.
Its spokesperson Raymond Montinola said records from the SRA will show that, in the past four crop years, except for one, their estimates have been way off.
“This is very disconcerting since production estimates influence market forces and determine how the SRA crafts its policies,” he said.
The group, in a statement, said the recently released production estimates for crop year 2019 to 2020 was 2.096 million metric tons (MT).
The figure is 23,000 metric tons higher than last year’s actual production of 2.073 million MT.
Montinola stressed that “this seeming penchant of the SRA to overestimate production by huge margins instead of reflecting the realities on the ground is extremely harmful to the industry because these figures are also the bases for drafting sugar orders and in determining implementation of the importation program.”
In 2018, the SRA initially projected the production at 2.225 million MT, which was 152,000 MT higher than the actual production of 2.073 million MT.
For crop year 2017-2018, production was projected at 2.380 million MT while actual production just reached 2.083 million MT, or a difference of 297,000 MT.
In crop year 2015 to 2016, SRA estimated production at 2.270 million MT against actual production of only 2.238 million MT, or 32,000 MT less.
Tatak Kalamay cited that the only exception was crop year 2016 to 2017, when production reached 2.500 million MT.
It was higher than the SRA’s estimate of 2.250 million MT.
“This was around the time when the issue of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) affected industry, sending prices spiraling downward,” it added.
Joseph Edgar Sarrosa, also of Tatak Kalamay, noted that the SRA earlier said production declined slightly by 0.54 percent from last year “belittling what that percentage in terms of income can spell for our small farmers.”
Sarrosa said the agency also claimed a reduction in area planted to sugarcane of 8,000 hectares, citing various reasons.
“This reduction means a reduction as well in production of about 600,000 bags of sugar. Yet this fact was clearly not inputted in this year’s production estimates,” he added.
For crop year 2017 to 2018, sugar importation reached 488,000 MT while last year, it was 250,000 MT only.
Meanwhile, Clarence Ortiz, the movement’s convenor, said their group is joining other industry stakeholders in opposing the five percent US quota allocation. This is around 100,000 MT priced way below domestic sugar.
“It may not look it to most, but a few hundred pesos’ difference in the price of each bag of sugar could be enough to spell hard times, or even disaster, for the small planters and agrarian reform beneficiaries who comprise more than 85 percent of sugar producers,” Ortiz said.
He added “they are the ones who have had to bear the brunt of the seemingly endless challenges the industry has faced over the last couple of years.”
Tatak Kalamay urged stakeholders to remain vigilant as the “battle is far from over.”
Montinola noted that beverage giant Coca-Cola is again lobbying for a tax reduction that would allow them to go back to using HFCS.
“We are already drafting letters to allied senators to take a closer look into the business practices of the company,” Montinola said.
“At the same time, we call on all stakeholders, including the consuming public, to close ranks against this giant that is clearly bent on destroying the sugar industry along with the millions of Filipinos who depend on it,” he added.