SUGAR Board Member David Sanson, representing the planters, called on sugar farmers to unite and work for a long-term solution that will address production, pricing, marketing, and other challenges facing the sugar industry.
Sanson said they are grateful that prices of sugar and molasses are going up since last week with the northern mills showing significant increases and they are hopeful that the southern mills will soon follow the trend,.
He said that last week’s bidding price has gone up to P2,300-P2,400 per 50Lkg with molasses breaching P9,000 per ton after more than three months of being in the P2,100-P2,200 level.
"Much of this can be attributed to the export program approved by the Sugar Board," he added.
Sanson noted that this was planned as early as November but some federations and other stakeholders did not agree with the program.
Instead, Sanson said these groups insisted in their own version to have Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) and the Department of Agriculture (DA) declare that there will be no importation until December 2026 believing that prices will adjust.
“We have proven that their version was a total failure, thus we decided to move with our own program that they disagreed with and now, farmers are reaping the benefits of better sugar prices and molasses,” he said.
He added that the sugar industry cannot afford a repeat of what has happened in the past three months when prices were not even at break-even point for some farmers, particularly the small ones.
“We cannot, must not, sacrifice our planter-members welfare just because some have their own agenda. We must unite, work on a long term plan to maintain equitable prices, be more open-minded and set aside our differences for the good of the sugar industry,” Sanson said.
The Sugar Council also said in a statement that the council has always worked for unity within the sugar industry, and has continuously signified its willingness to collaborate with the SRA to come up with viable and sustainable solutions to the problems hounding the industry.
The council said that numerous communications of the Sugar Council to the Sugar Board attest to that.
"Mr. Sanson, who sits in the Sugar Board as planters representative, recently came out in the news asking for unity from all stakeholders. But Sanson’s idea of unity is unity at their own terms, which means for stakeholders to swallow whatever solution SRA wants, sometimes with little or no regard for what was discussed in a stakeholders consultative meeting. That is not genuine unity -- that is blind obedience," the sugar council said.
The council added that Sanson is patting himself on the back for the recent P20 to P30 average increase in mill gate prices.
"This increase is so insignificant when compared to the P300 to P500 average weekly decrease from the previous crop year’s mill gate prices. When summed up, those year-on-year negative variances in weekly mill gate price represents billions of foregone revenue," it added. (MAP)