A GROUP of sugar farmers and workers in Negros Occidental are calling on the government to investigate the continuing decrease in the prices of sugar.
Members of Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) and Negros Farmworkers and Agrarian Reform Beneficiary Producers’ Federation (Nefarb), along with some union workers in the province, in a press conference at Negros Press Club Office in Bacolod City yesterday, expressed deep concern on the slump in sugar mill gate prices for several weeks now.
Benjamin Tundag, chairman and spokesperson of PM-Negros, said they are also worried on the projected glut of sugar in the international market.
Tundag said a doom scenario of poverty, hunger and hopelessness is once again feared by small sugar farmers, workers, and ARBs.
“We are demanding the government, particularly concerned agencies and the legislative department, for an immediate investigation and intervention on these concerns as more than 350,000 Negrenses dependent on the sugar industry will be affected,” he added.
Nefarb, for its part, said that although the economy has grown remarkably during the third quarter of the year, it is not benefiting the sugar farmers and workers.
The group pointed out that the current mill gate price of sugar is only P1,100 per 50-kilogram bag from P1,800 during the crop year (CY) 2013 to 2014.
During CY 2014 to 2015, the mill gate price was P1,500. It continued to decrease to P1,300 in CY 2015 to 2016, it added.
Sandrico Cornelio, chairman of Nefarb, said small producers will never survive the price level of P1,100 per 50-kilogram bag.
Cornelio said their gross income from the average harvest of 60 tons per hectare at 1.5 kilogram bag per ton of cane purity is only about P83,724.
The amount comprises P68,000 from sugar and P15,724 from molasses.
“This is P2,000 lower than the average cost of production of P86,000 per hectare. What more if prices slide down further,” he added.
The group also expressed worries that if the downward trend is not arrested, a severe crisis will hit the ARBs.
Nefarb is calling on the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) to conduct an investigation on why the mill gate price continues to drop while retail prices remain high.
Cornelio said the Congress should also conduct inquiry on the reported unabated entry or smuggling of imported alternative sweeteners that negatively impact the prices of locally-produced sugar.
There should be formulation of alternative plans in anticipation of the looming sugar industry crisis, he said.
“The solution needed is not the dictatorship through revolutionary government,” Cornelio said, adding that “if there are killers of the industry, for sure there are also victims to be killed. It is us, the small sugarcane producers.”