Marcos to address problems hounding sugar industry
President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. said his administration will try to ''restore'' the sugar industry after years of neglect.
"The problem with the sugar industry is that we have so many problems we need to address since it has been neglected in previous years. So we are slowly trying to restore it," Marcos said in Filipino during distribution event of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and Department of Agriculture (DA) in Bacolod on Sunday.
Marcos, who also agriculture secretary, earlier said he will push to sugar production and other agricultural production to reduce the country's reliance on imports.
The DA and the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA) are working to come up with sugar prices that will not be too expensive and help farmers
In an interview with dzBB, Assistant Agriculture Secretary Kristine Evangelista said based on their monitoring of the sugar supply in wet markets, Prices range from P95 to P120.
Evangelista said the SRA has started selling sugar at P70 per kilo in their selected offices and the DA is trying to make it available in Kadiwa rolling stores.
“We are making a cost structure together with the SRA. How can we lower the cost of sugar in the wet market? Because that is the most convenient place for consumers to get their sugar. That’s why we are discussing the retail price, spearheaded by the SRA. For our part, we look at the buying culture of consumers. Up to what price can they afford? For SRA’s part, they have the inventory of the amount of sugar that can be available for a certain price,” Evangelista said.
“Hopefully, we could come up with a cost structure that will be equitable for our farmers who produce sugar…we are looking at how we can make the cost cheaper in the wet market. This is one of the most important issues to be addressed,” she added.
The DA last week said it will be selling sugar at P70 per kilo at SRA Quezon City and Bacolod officers as well as Kadiwa stores.
In a separate dzBB interview, SRA Board Member Pablo Luis Azcona said selected Robinsons outlets and CSI Supermarkets are also selling sugar at the same price.
Azcona said the SRA allotted around 300,000 bags or 15 million kilos of sugar to be sold at P70 per kilo.
“For retail, right now, we are limiting it to three kilos (of sugar) per person, so that it won’t be bought and hoarded. So the supply will last long for household use,” Azcona told dzBB.
Azcona said based on a year-on-year comparison, the country’s sugar supply in October improved by 20 percent.
“As of October 16,2022, based on our inventory…we were already about 20 percent better than we were on October 16 last year,” he said.
According to Azcona, raw sugar is sold at P62 while refined sugar is sold for up to P90
“Brown raw sugar of farmers is priced at P62. If you make that refined through local production, the rough estimate is that by the time it reaches Manila, it will be sold at P85-P90. Then it will already be white sugar,” he added. DMS/Jaspearl Tan
