The order of President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr to expedite the importation of over 64,000 metric tons of sugar is untimely since local millers are in full swing, which means there is enough supply, a group of sugar producers said Thursday.
Philippine National Federation of Sugar Workers Secretary General Butch Lozande said importation should be done by March or April when the estimates of production yield are known.
“Ang position namin talaga wala na munang importation this year. Siguro kung meron man, idetermine natin next year…Ang makikita ng kulang ay March to April, kung saan nakita na natin ang approximate production sa year 2022-2023,” he said.
(Our position is no importation this year, if there’s a need, let’s determine next year by March or April, when we know the approximate yield of year 2022-2023)
There have been 2 batches of imports earlier this year, on top of the almost 3.8 million metric tons of local produce. This should be enough to cater to the over 2 million metric tons of estimated consumption for the year.
The DA argued that the imports would lower the prices of refined sugar.
But Lozande said there could be manipulation at play.
“Yun ang pinagtataka namin, we suspect na merong manipulation and supply sa pricing nito, kasi bumaba na ito ng October eh, bumalik naman nitong November, papasok ng December,” he said.
(We suspect there’s manipulation in supply and pricing since the price had already gone down then it went up again in November, entering December)
“Which is para sa amin, it should be medyo bababa na siya kasi nasa full swing tayo ng milling, pasok sa peak season ng milling, December, January, February – wala tayong dapat ikabahala in terms sa supply kasi lahat ng mills sa buong bansa ay operational,” he added.
(When it should be going down since we are in full swing in terms of milling. In terms of supply, there’s nothing to worry about because all millers nationwide are operational)
Inflation, which hit 8 percent in November, can be mitigated by temporarily removing VAT on basic goods such as sugar and putting a price cap instead of ramping up imports, he said.
“Ito ang direkta, simple, direct na pwedeng magawa ng administration para pwedeng maprotect mga consumer natin,” Lozande said.
(This is the direct, simple solution that the government can do to protect consumers).
