SRA looking into low farmgate prices of sugar

The Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) is looking into the cause of the low trading for the farmgate price of sugar during the first release of quedan on Friday, September 15.

In a press statement, SRA administrator Pablo Azcona

said, "I was informed that trading of sugar went below the P3,000 mark that we had forecasted. Two mills had priced a little beyond P3,000 per 50-kilogram (Lkg) bag, but some went as low as P2,550 to P2,700, which was a bit surprising, and SRA is now looking into what could have caused price depression during trading last week."

He said that since February, they have maintained prices at a comfortable level of P3,000, which is equivalent to P60/kilogram at farmgate raw.

On the part of Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson, he said, "We always said we hope that we can maintain the price at P3,000 per bag.”

"As we know, there was a lot of approved importation. But we hope SRA, where most of the officials are from Negros Occidental, is aware of what the planters are expecting. I hope it rebounds and still maintains the average of P3,000 per bag," Lacson pointed out.

"Farmers will be happy with P3,000 per bag. It is expected that sugar farmers would always send their canes to the sugar mills that give more income in return," Lacson said, relative to reports that some sugar mills in the province only bought it at P2,600 per bag while other sugar mills purchased it at more than P3,000 per bag.

"If prices go up above P3,000, admittedly, there would be extra money at the end of milling, but anything below that, you will have farms that will only break even. That's why at P3,000, sugar farmers will be happy already so that they will have extra in their pockets," Lacson further explained.

He said high prices of petroleum products will also result in high prices of fertilizers and that sugar farmers will be hit again by the high price of fertilizers if they have to wait for their sugar proceeds to buy fertilizers.*